The Ghost of a Vulture Pilot
by Troll-Theorist
Summary: Surrounded by hostile protoss during a mission, vulture pilot Sony and his military colleagues are rescued by some eccentric terran pirates. Once they settle on an unknown planet and a zerg invasion is not taken seriously by the pirates' captain, mutiny starts brewing. *StarCraft belongs to Blizzard Entertainment.*
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Peaceful Valley**

A red creature with webbed limbs similar to wings on the sides of its body dug into a cluster of blue crystals with its crab claws. Once it was done cutting the shards, it brought them closer so it could inspect them with its two big, red, bulging eyes. Being a zerg drone, its role was to gather pieces of minerals, clean them of any useless material, and bring them to the building where it was born. Unfortunately for this drone, it was about to meet trouble the moment it would turn around.

"Well, whaddya know? A mineral line without defenses!" said a terran man who looked at the drone through his round, red glasses. His long, pointy ginger beard made him seem like he had a beak growing from his chin. The guy found it fitting since he drove a vulture hoverbike.

The drone let out a buzzed scream and quickly dug its way under ground. The other two drones nearby followed its example and burrowed as well.

"Aw, hell! Now I can't find 'em!" the vulture pilot said. He pushed a button next to a screen inside his vehicle, then proceeded to speak. "Yo, Captain! We need a scan ova' here! Pronto!"

He got the answer from the voice of a man over the station. "I am sorry, but our ComSat station is a little low on energy at this time."

"Say what now?" the pilot asked, staring at the map on the screen. "Captain, what the hell did ya use the scans on?"

"I was looking for more vespene geysers. We'll need them when our main ones get depleted."

The pilot took his purple, pirate-style headscarf off his head, revealing his ginger short hair. Then he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the headscarf. He was barely holding back from lashing out at the captain after what he had just heard.

To make things worse, some other creatures started to come out of the spiky living structure behind him. The hissing was a telltale sign that he was about to deal with hydralisks – those slithering bastards with scythes for arms and foaming mouths full of sharp teeth.

He looked behind for a split second and then started the engine.

The hydralisks slithered so fast that they were almost touching the back of his vulture the moment he started to drive away. One question popped up in his mind at that moment. _Drive away to where?_

A vast deep chasm lay before him, so he had no choice but to hit the brakes. This was the end of the road, and the zerg weren't going to miss the chance to shoot their deadly spines at him. He looked behind and saw four hydralisks with their head flaps open, making them appear to have elephant ears. They were ready to riddle him.

"Well, looks like I'm as good as dead."

The hydralisks launched the needles, which pierced through the armor of his vehicle. Two of the needles went through his leather jacket, right into his right shoulder. His scream was drowned out by the sound of a massive explosion.

"Look at that! Nothing but a pool of innards left!" a guy shouted cheerfully through the vulture's station. "You okay there, Sony?"

The vulture pilot stopped cowering behind his vehicle's seat and looked behind to see a tank with its giant cannon pointed at the place where the hydralisks once stood. "Tony! Just in time, man!"

A larger hydralisk with spider legs and a row of thick spikes on its back appeared from behind the hatchery of the zerg. It roared at the two vehicles and then dug its way under the purple creep substance that was on the ground. Then a line of sharp spikes made its way toward the tank, damaging its threads.

"Let's get out of here!" Tony said as he switched his tank out of siege mode and drove it off the creep. Sony started up his vulture and followed him.

The zerg spider abomination came back to the surface and triumphantly watched them leave.

* * *

The tank and the vulture bike drove side by side while their drivers communicated over video transmission.

"Hey, Sony, why the hell were you near the zerg hatchery, man?" Tony asked. He was a slightly plump guy with a subtle mustache, black stubble on his chin, and a helmet with goggles on his head.

"Their drones were in plain sight! I just had to take the chance!" Sony said.

"Dude, you were told to scout! You had _one_ job!"

"But getting rid of their workers is–"

Tony cut Sony off. "I don't care what our old strategy was like. We're no longer under Sons of Korhal, so no one's gonna bring new soldiers to our army unless the captain finds more lost people somewhere. So try to stay alive, damn it!"

Sony sank into his bike's chair, not finding anything he could say. They were on this planet with blue ground and rusty sky, with no other humans around except their tiny crew of former army men. Then the zerg came after them … The creatures ruined the peaceful life they've had for the past month there.

* * *

Three more hydralisks came out of the spiky structure that served as their den. They began to morph into cocoons next to the larger hydralisk that looked like a spider. A shimmer appeared near a tall pile of crystals. The distortion was in the shape of a slim humanoid wearing some kind of suit with goggles. It raised its right arm to its head's temple and said in a breathy male voice, "Requesting permission to exterminate the vermin, sir."

A man with a deep voice replied over the station with, "Permission granted, Agent 40. The nuclear silo is armed."

The three cocoons burst open, and the zerg coming out looked exactly like the modified hydralisk that guarded the area before them.

The shimmer moved away from the crystals and pointed a rifle at the zerg hatchery. A red blinking dot appeared on the giant structure, causing all four of the eight-limbed zerg to look at it and gasp in horror.

"They'll never know what hit 'em," the agent said.

The sound of a giant missile being launched could be heard from the distance. Soaring through the sky, the projectile began to curve its trajectory downward, heading toward the blinking red light.

The zerg drones and mutated hydralisks dug their way into the ground, hoping that they could survive the explosion. It didn't work. They all perished in the scorching mushroom cloud that covered the area. The only things left standing were the two bleeding structures.

Agent 40 turned off his cloaking device, revealing himself as a man wearing a dark blue suit. His face had a mask and goggles with three glowing cyan lenses – two small ones over his right eye, and a big one over his left eye. From the back of his head, a hose was connected all the way to his right cheek. In his hands he held a long, heavy C-10 rifle. He activated the station again and said, "You can send in the marines now, sir. All the zerg are dead; we just have two weak structures to deal with. I'll be heading back to base now. I need a drink."

Behind him, eight marines with blue armor ran alongside sixteen marines that had white armor. One of the blue ones opened fire on the hatchery and said, "Let's take it down, boys! Go, go, go!"

All twenty four marines shot in unison, making the hatchery melt into a puddle of red gooey blood. Then they started shooting at the hydralisk den, not stopping until it splattered all over the creep that started to dry out in absence of the hatchery.

"Way to go, boys! Now it's beer time!" the marine from earlier said.

The mass of marines went along the giant chasm until they got to the end of it. Passing by the tusk-like rocks, they turned right when they saw the lake up ahead and then went to the left, reaching an area that was protected by an U-shaped chain of cliffs. In this area, two bunkers were at the front of the opening, with a firebat guard near each of them.

"Good to see you're all in one piece, guys!" one of the firebats said, smoking a cigar while wearing a heavy red suit of armor with two white gas tanks on its back.

"Let's hope it stays that way," a marine in white told him. "The zerg had some complex stuff near that hatchery. Stuff like hydralisks and some bizarre mutations of those. But we didn't see the vespene geyser next to them being claimed, so something's off here."

Still holding the cigar in a corner of his mouth, the firebat asked, "D'you think they got a lair somewhere?"

"I sure hope not! These things breed faster than rats. But the commander said that we got nothing to worry about, because he scanned most of the areas rich in minerals and saw nothing before the scanner broke down."

The firebat spat his finished cigar. "I think he should get an SCV to fix that thing. Who knows what else could be out there ..."

"The SceeVees are on a lunch break," a marine in blue armor said.

"Well, I'm knockin' on wood that nothin' comes up while we're in this situation," the firebat said.

The marines marched on, passing by the command center that had an empty nuclear silo attached to it. Then they went between two barracks and two large areas that were covered with minerals. In front of the left mineral patch there was an engineering bay, a factory with a machine shop attached, a science facility with a covert ops addon, and a giant science vessel floating atop it. Up ahead, there was the command center with the broken ComSat station. There were two supply depots to its left and right side, storing the weaponry and other tools. Further from that place, between two refineries of vespene gas, there was something looking like a frigate and spaceship hybrid. It was ten times larger than the science vessel and had a ramp on its side, leading to an entrance to the ship.

Once the marines passed the entrance hall, they reached the bar area. There, everyone was trying to relax, some having a drink, some eating their lunch, and most of them talking to those of their profession. Sony on the other hand chose to sit alone at the counter and eat some purple, meaty, boiled food that looked like coral branches. He looked at the water in his glass and started contemplating.

Tony brought Sony back to the present when he yelled, "Yo, Sony! Finally decided to try that thing Magellan cooked?"

Sony frowned at him. "Lower your voice, man! You shoulda gotten ear implants while we were in the Confederacy."

Tony sighed and took a seat next to him. "If only they weren't so stingy on the price … Actually, they should have given me those for free. It's because of the Confederacy that I've lost my hearing. The CVC helmet they gave me was defective. Anyway, what does that alien coral taste like?"

"It's pretty close to the taste of squid, but it's more chewy."

"Say, what thoughts did you sink into just earlier? You were staring at that glass of water like you were trying to melt it with your sight."

Sony looked at the counter. "This bar … is the only place where I feel at home. When I go outside and see blue sand and an orange sky, I just know I don't belong. I miss Mar Sara. I was ready to give my life to protect it against the zerg. And then Mengsk came along ..."

"Well, that's in the past now," Tony said and then began drinking some beer from a mug he got from the waiter in exchange for a mineral piece.

At another table, some guys were hanging out with a wrinkled bald man who had a brown mustache.

The bald man was telling a story in his monotone, robotic voice. "Creature tried to perform landing. Goliath missiles ready. Opening fire. O.S.K.O.."

Next to him, a guy with dark complexion said, "That's great and all, Rob, but I don't think those giant flying lizards pose any threat. Even my SCV could probably kill them with ease."

"At least goliath missile systems are functional," Rob said.

To the right, at yet another table, Agent 40 and three other men with masks similar to his were preparing to eat as well.

One of the masked men had his red goggle lenses in a mirror image to that of Agent 40's mask. Instead of having just one hose to the right side of his face, he had one on the right and one on the left. A vertical antenna extended from the place where his left ear would be. His suit was crimson.

Another masked man was dressed exactly like Agent 40, but his goggle lenses glowed green and his suit was the color of artichoke.

The last one had a black suit and green goggles with only one lens for each eye – the right one being smaller. For some reason his mask had a green light where his nose should be. Yet the oddest thing about him was the slightly flat, conical straw hat he wore.

"Nuclear lunch detected!" the guy with red glowing goggles said in a sultry voice while receiving his ordered dish from the waiter. On the plate there was a giant roasted mushroom with mashed potatoes at its foot.

"Your fascination with nukes is disturbing," Agent 40 said. He got up from the table, took his plate that had a triangular sandwich on it, and moved to the counter.

"Where did you get the mushroom from?" the guy with the hat asked in a stoner voice.

"Magellan grew it in his lab," the man with the red goggles said.

At the counter, Agent 40 sat next to Tony, who asked him, "What's up, Spook? Freaked out by your fellow ghosts again?"

"And I thought the academy was weird ..." Agent 40 grumbled.

Sony looked at the table where the ghosts were eating, and then stared at the ghost near Tony. "'Ey, what's up with the dude wearing that sedge hat every day?"

"That guy … he creeps me out more than the other two. When asked why he wears that hat, he said that people thought he wore one during a transmission due to the poor lighting, and then he started wearing one just so they didn't know they were wrong."

Tony and Sony were speechless at that response.

Agent 40 put a hand on his forehead. "Don't get me started on what his mind is like. It's a fucking Escher world in his head! Nothing makes sense; it almost drove me crazy the last time I tried reading him."

"I wonder where the captain found him," Tony said.

"Oh, he didn't find Hat Guy. Hat Guy found him. While the ship was still in space. The freak just made himself right at home in here."

"Do you think he's an alien?" Tony whispered, at the same time wondering if his words could be heard.

The ghost whispered back. "Some people around here theorize that Hat Guy might even be a robot. No one has seen him eat, though the food he says he will eat just disappears when nobody is looking."

Tony tried cleaning the hole of his left ear with his pinky while saying, "Could you repeat that, please?"

"Some … Oh, never mind. I'll just deliver it via telepathy."

"I think the zerg are the least of our worries while we got that freak around," Sony said.

"Hey! When did you ruin my mushroom?" the red-goggled ghost said to Hat Guy while pointing at the mushroom that lacked a small piece of its top.

"I just wanted to see what it tastes like," Hat Guy said.

"How come you never eat while we're watching you?"

Hat Guy shrugged.

At another table, a long-haired blond guy and a guy with short black hair sat and whispered to each other while pointing at Sony, Tony, and Agent 40. "These guys are quite the oddballs, mate. They prefer to not stick around with their own kind."

"I can't blame Tony, he's the only tank driver we got," said the other guy. "Same with Rob being the only goliath pilot and hanging out with the SceeVees. Then again SCVs are mechas as well, so they do kind of mix." Then he pointed at Sony. "But this guy … what's his name … He ain't ever eaten with us even though he's a vulture pilot too. At least Spook tries to get along with the other ghosts."

The large television screen mounted on the bar's wall was displaying a football game when the transmission was cut off and replaced with an image of an android. The android had three red eyes on his face's right side, and a white, human eye on the left. On a red banner at the image's bottom, white text said, _MAGELLAN_ and on a yellow banner below it, written in black, _NEWS REPORTER & SCIENTIST_. On the top-left of the video, there was another yellow banner with _BREAKING NEWS_ written in black as well.

"We interrupt this program to bring you this breaking news!" the android said.

Sony rubbed his beard while staring at the screen. "What's Magellan doing on TV?"

The screen then showed five red creatures similar to velociraptors, except that they had a second pair of hands ending in scythes. Two of them had yellowish-green smoke emanating from their bodies and ran around their group frantically while the other three seemed dizzy and unable to stand anymore.

"Holy shit! Zerglings!" Tony said.

The five creatures burst open, their remains forming a huge pile of guts. Then the transmission was changed back to show Magellan, who said, "Zerglings have arrived at our camp and attempted to destroy our barracks. They have been swiftly irradiated by yours truly. But don't sigh in relief just yet. Have a look at this!" He switched the camera to show a massive wave of zerglings heading toward the camp.

"Holy mother of … It's time to roll out my tank!" Tony said, then he got up from his chair and ran toward the exit.

"Marines! Get to the bunkers!" Sony said while wrapping his headscarf around his head.

"Fuck no! We're goin' out there to mow 'em down!" one of the marines in a blue armor suit said.

"But–"

"Y'can't order us around anymore. We're pirates now!" another blue-suited marine told a befuddled Sony.

* * *

Tony was driving his tank off the factory's ramp when Sony arrived to get his vulture bike. The other vultures were way ahead of him, already driving toward the swarm that approached the area. They planted six spider mines that remained hidden under the blue sand. Then the bikers teased the zerglings to chase them toward the landmines. As soon as the creatures stepped on the death traps, they were sent flying by the explosion, dying instantly.

The blond vulture pilot sent a transmission to his comrade. "Did ya see those wankas fly?"

"Yeah! They sure had a blast!" the other guy said. Then he heard the sound of claws thumping on his bike and he quickly turned around to see three zerglings getting their hooks into the metal in the rear of the vulture. "Crap! I gotta jet!" When he looked at what was ahead, he saw three more zerglings blocking his way. "N-no!"

After a few more whacks from the six zerglings' claws, the vulture bike exploded, killing its driver.

"You still alive, man? Shifty! Shifty!" The blond vulture pilot was screaming at his bike's screen while hitting the microphone area with his fist. "Goddamn it! They got ya, didn't they?" He heard something hit his bike's rear, so he turned around and saw a zergling. "Oh no you don't!" Starting the engine, he drove away faster than the beast could run.

The zerglings poured into the valley and started attacking the bunker in which the firebats hid. They took fire jets to the face, but more of them joined in and started hitting the building with their sharp claws repeatedly, cracking the metal.

"Over here, you disgusting pieces of shit!" a marine in blue armor said while he and the other marines opened fire, causing the first eighteen zerglings to die and melt away into the sand.

"Woohoo!" a white-armored marine yelled while dancing.

Then they were swamped with zerglings that killed four marines in white suit and the one in blue who attacked first.

The siege tank's cannon released a blast that splattered most of the zerglings, obligating the remaining eight to retreat.

"I ordered those marines to hide in the bunkers, but they just had to ignore me," Sony said to Tony over the station. "I am a sergeant!"

"Our ranks don't matter now," Tony said. "I can't order you around, you can't order me around, and nobody's the boss around here except … maybe the captain. I don't know, maybe not even him."

Said captain appeared from the frigate spaceship while holding some kind of smartphone in front of his face. He had a large, black mustache and was a little overweight, but his red cap and uniform decorated with golden stripes made him seem strong. "Attention, men!" he said as he passed by the vulture and tank. "Mister Magellan has alerted me about the existence of a zerg lair just past the wall of our valley, to the east. Y'all are to eliminate the threat at all costs. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Tony said.

Sony decided to make himself heard too. "I read ya, _sir._ It's like reading a children's book."

The captain turned to look at the vulture pilot. "What was that?"

Sony smirked at him and said, "What? Ya sat too close to Tony's tank while he fired?"

Giving him a nasty look, the captain walked away to talk to the marines in person. From what Sony could see, they weren't too happy about the orders either, but they complied and marched along with the two firebats, leaving the valley.

* * *

Nine zerg drones were busy collecting all the minerals they could get from around their lair while four other ones were carefully carrying gas from the vespene geyser of the mud pit near the terrans' base. There was a green pool of goo near the water, and twelve zerglings swam in it.

"There they are!" a firebat said while pointing at the lair up ahead.

The zerglings jumped out of their pool and began charging while the marines unleashed their rifles and shot at them. The marines seemed to be winning, but then they realized that there were at least twenty more zerglings hiding behind the lair.

"Fall back!" a blue-armored marine said after noticing one of the two firebats being torn to shreds by the zerglings' claws.

More men would have died if the blast from the tank's cannon hadn't pulverized all of the zerglings in two shots.

One of the blue marines looked at Tony's tank and saluted in front of its camera. "Thanks, man! We woulda been butchered if it weren't for ya."

"Don't mention it!" Tony said.

Sony drove right into the mineral line and started shooting at the drones.

One of the white-armored marines pointed at the terrified running creatures. "Heheh! Look at those things scurry! Hey! I got an idea!"

After killing one drone with his vulture's fragmentation grenades, Sony turned his bike around to see what the marines were laughing about. When he saw, he facepalmed.

Four marines were riding on the backs of drones, trying to steer them toward the lake. Once in it, they forced the drones to swim in circles on the water's surface while they continued to ride them.

"See this shit?" Sony said to Tony while pointing at the event going down at the lake. "This is the kind of shit that makes the protoss want to glass us."

A loud bang was heard and one of the drones had its head destroyed by a shot. The sniper was the green ghost. "Party's over. Now get to work!"

One of the drones tried to morph into a hydralisk den but got killed by a cannon blast before it could finish. The marines gunned down all of the drones while Sony, Tony, and the other vulture pilot shot at the lair. Then everyone focused on getting rid of the green pool. Once all zerg structures were gone, the purple creep dried up and then got blown away by the wind.

A white-armored SCV arrived. Its pilot – who also doubled as the waiter at the bar – said, "I hate being an SCV. I hope the captain's right about this being the last zerg structure, so we can have peace again. I just want to serve at the bar. I hope this is the last command center I'll ever have to build." Then he began laying the foundation for what was to be their third command center.

"Peace …" Agent 40 said. "Whenever there is peace, I can't help but think it would be the perfect time to nuke everyone to hell."

Sony looked at him for a moment and then said, "I better go fix my bike."

Agent 40 gave a sinister laugh. "You're scared, aren't you, Sony boy?"

Sony started the engine. "Uh … I'm outta here." He left almost instantly.

* * *

In the evening, the SCV pilots left their mechas outside and went to sleep in the command centers. Sony, Tony, and the other vulture pilot left their vehicles near the SCVs and slept in the factory, which could be the equivalent of a mansion in their case.

Rob's goliath was atop one of the cliffs, resting one of its legs over the bones of a creature twice as large as the mecha. In the meantime, Rob was in one of the barracks, along with the four ghosts and eight marines who were still in their suits. "G.N. everyone!" he said while getting into one of the floor bunk beds.

The red ghost sat in the top bed above Agent 40's one. He searched underneath his pillow and found what he wanted: a magazine that showed female ghosts. Admiring the way their suits went along their slim but toned body shape, he said, "Mmm, look how well-equipped these ladies are! The sausage fest of this place makes me miss the academy."

"Hey, Playboy, if you're not gonna share, keep quiet about it!" Agent 40 said.

"Well, I only got one magazine, but I could hook you and the other ghosts to my mind if you want."

"Eww!" the green ghost said.

Hat Guy flinched and then put his hat over his face. "No, thanks."

Agent 40 felt like he was about to puke. "Not just no but _hell no_! Just … keep it to yourself and let us sleep!"

"Suit yourselves!" The red ghost turned invisible.

* * *

Outside, behind one of the repaired bunkers, a zerg drone dug its way out of its burrow. Its large red eyes shone demonically in the night as it buzzed and looked at the frigate spaceship. Then the creature made its way out of the valley.

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Mistakes Were Made**

The golden sun rays shone onto the blue valley, warming it up. Green reptilian creatures the size of an adult cow expanded their bat wings and ascended from the waterhole east of the valley's entrance.

Inside the frigate spaceship, the pirates were having breakfast. Some of them were missing, but everyone there knew they would come sooner or later. After all, the food and drinks were great.

Agent 40 – or Spook as most of his colleagues called him – had removed the lower portion of his mask and began to eat his bacon, eggs, and beans meal.

The red ghost, which most people there called Playboy, was waiting for his food to arrive. Since the waiter seemed to be taking his sweet time delivering it to him, and he had already finished drinking his glass of moonshine, he decided to strike up a conversation. "Hey, Spook, do you think we'll ever get any devices to steal … I mean, _access_ the hypernet around here? Magellan can do that for us, but you know, not all of us want to look up the same stuff."

Spook swallowed the food he was chewing, then said, "I don't think the captain trusts us enough to give us personal computers. If I had access to the hypernet, I'd look up some way to build a spaceship so I could get the hell out of here."

Playboy eagerly told him, "If I had a PC … I'd download the porn of the entire Koprulu Sector! Mwahaha!"

Spook's eyes were still hidden by his mask, but the other ghosts knew he was rolling them after hearing that.

"I'd just look up hunting techniques," the green ghost said. "Some of the beasts around here are skittish. Won't let me put a bullet in their heads."

"If I had a PC, I'd let you guys use it whenever you'd need it," Hat Guy said. "I'd rather enjoy what nature has to offer, and learn from experience first hand."

Playboy looked at him. "You want to experience everything? Ain't nobody got time for that."

"You're all lazy asses!" Sony's shouting made everyone aware of his arrival. "I told ya I need one of you to check my bike so the repeller seals don't jam and send me straight into an early grave, but none of you took the time to use your piece of junk SCV to help me out!"

As Sony approached the table where the SCV pilots and Rob ate, the goliath pilot said, in a cheerier than usual robotic voice, "Good morning, S.O.B.!"

Sony turned his glare toward Rob, who had a shit-eating grin on his face. "Go take your chicken walker down a hill, Rob!"

The goliath pilot snickered and then resumed eating a sandwich.

"Really, guys! It's not like I'm asking you to do this for free! You were supposed to fix stuff!" Sony continued.

"Well, actually," the SCV pilot with darker skin said, "our main job is to collect minerals and vespene gas. Building and fixing stuff are secondary roles."

"Those roles are just as important, you wrench swinger!" Sony said.

"You wouldn't be acting so tough if I were in the SCV right now to swing that wrench at you."

Sony grabbed the pilot by the neck of his blue T-shirt and dragged him off the chair. "Listen here, Harold! Us vultures can kill the workers of all three species with ease. Don't make me wreck your scrapyard mech with my bike, as damaged as it is!"

"It wouldn't be damaged anymore if you took some lessons about fixing stuff and borrowed an SCV by now," the SCV pilot said.

Sony put his glasses on the table while still keeping the pilot in his grip. He stared furiously with his green eyes at the guy and raised his right fist, preparing to punch him in the face. "Are you mocking me? I didn't go through all that training just to become a grease monkey because you guys won't do your job!"

The SCV pilot started to quiver, realizing that the vulture pilot who was one head taller than him had somewhat noticeable muscle mass in his arms.

Sony was about to swing his fist, but then found himself with a rifle pointed to his head.

"Listen, Sony boy, if you don't stop causing petty fights with the SceeVees, I'll blow your head clean off." It was Spook, fully masked again.

Hat Guy's green goggles started to glow brighter than usual while he clenched his fists on the table.

Sony let go of the SCV pilot while stepping to the side, trying to get away from the rifle. "I-I'm chill now. I'm chill." He grabbed his glasses off the table and put them back on his nose.

Hat Guy's goggles stopped glowing, and his body was no longer tensed. The waiter brought a plate with three pancakes that were covered in maple syrup and put it in front of Hat Guy.

"Bon appétit!" the waiter said.

Hat Guy nodded. "Thank you."

Once the spirits had calmed down, Playboy turned to look at Hat Guy. "Now that you got food, show us how you eat!"

"Yeah, show us!" one of the marines said.

The green ghost said nothing, but stared at Hat Guy, expecting him to make a move.

Everyone – except for Sony, Tony, and Spook – focused on Hat Guy, waiting to see the event they've never witnessed before.

"Well, I … am a little shy when it comes to eating while so many people are watching me ..." Hat Guy said while scratching behind his head. Never mind the fact that the hard part of his suit there did not allow him to feel anything.

While Playboy was trying to encourage Hat Guy to take a bite out of the pancakes, Spook was still staring at Sony, who was next to Tony, slouching over the counter.

"You know what I've always wondered about you, kid? Most of us had to be dragged away from our families or friends to join the academy. But you joined _willingly_. You were born on a fringe world. You could have gotten away with staying off their radar. What made you take such a stupid decision?"

Sony looked into those cold, cyan goggles of Spook's. That question cut deep. Still, he tried his best to give an answer without giving too much away. "I-I joined because I was a loser."

Spook continued to stare at him for a few seconds. "Oh … Oh, you're not kidding. You really _are_ a loser!"

Sony covered his head with his hands, futilely hoping to stop the ghost's mind reading abilities from reaching more of his thoughts. "D-don't tell anyone about it, okay?"

Spook chuckled, then turned around and said, "Hey guys! Want to know a funny secret about Sony boy?"

"Fuckin' snitch!" Sony said under his breath while grimacing.

"Sure! We could always use a little entertainment!" a blue marine said.

The SCV who argued with Sony earlier smirked. "Tell us, Spook!"

The commotion caught the blond vulture pilot's attention too. "What did that bogan do?"

"This is gonna be interesting!" Playboy said.

Seeing that everyone was about to take potshots at Sony, Tony nudged the vulture pilot and said, "Let's get out of here for a bit …"

As the tank driver and the biker left the bar, Spook said to everyone, "Well, if you want that information, it'll cost you."

"How much?" a blue marine asked.

Spook told him, "Oh, about 2000 minerals."

"Crap. I ain't got that many."

"But I have them!" the SCV pilot with a grudge on Sony said, even putting the crystals on the table to prove he had them.

Spook began to laugh while slapping the crystals off the table. "You would pay for the bashing of your own teammate. Can you get any more pathetic than that?"

Everyone stared at him with puzzled looks on their faces – even though the ghosts could not show their expressions because of their masks.

When Playboy turned to look at his table, the pancakes were gone. Apparently, Hat Guy had already eaten them. "How the fuck do you eat so fast?!"

* * *

Tony and Sony went to the shore of the lake situated to the east of the valley. There, they sat on some rocks and stared at the water.

"Ghosts are the dirtiest scumbags you can come across in the army," Sony said.

Tony patted him on the back. "Uh … Just to get this out of the way: I don't expect you to explain what Spook was on about. If you don't want to tell, you don't have to. All I want to say is that you shouldn't let them get to you. If they try to harm you, I'm more than willing to kick their asses!"

"Heh, you kicking the asses of guys trained to snap the necks of zerglings … Let's be real, we're lucky I didn't do anything to earn me a lynching."

As they sat there in silence, something with a slightly flat body moved over the sand in the distance. They could barely see the details, but when they saw that more of those creatures were trailing behind it, they got up and took a few steps in the direction of the sighting. Low buzzing noises could be heard.

Tony felt a chill run down his spine. "Are those what I think they are?"

"If they look like drones, hover like drones, and buzz like drones …" Sony said, "then it's time to call everyone to arms before we get swamped again!"

They both ran like the wind, hoping to return to their base without any zerg catching them while they were unarmed.

* * *

Spook sat at the counter, his right hand supporting his forehead. He offered ten minerals and said, "Waiter, give me a shot of whiskey. Or a shot of a gun. I'll take either. I'd even eat _my_ gun right now."

The waiter picked up the crystals. "I got no guns on hand, but one shot of whiskey, coming right up."

Playboy, slightly drunk and having his mouth and blond stubble chin exposed, overheard the conversation and said to the other two ghosts at the table, "Poor Spooky ... Looks like he needs someone to cheer him up. Well, female ghosts have nicer 'equipment', but I'll take my chances here." He put his mask's lower piece back on and then went toward the blue ghost.

Hat Guy stared at him. "I advise you to not go through with that plan."

Leaning against the counter with his left elbow, Playboy was too close for Spook's comfort. "Hey ..."

In response to what Playboy was about to ask, Spook swiftly delivered a right punch to Playboy's face, making the red ghost feel the pain from the hit through his mask. Then the blue ghost bluntly said, "No."

Playboy went back to the ghost table, holding a hand to his right cheek and shuffling his feet along the way. "Well, looks like I remain solo operative."

"I warned you," Hat Guy said, slowly shaking his head.

"Drones!" Tony and Sony yelled at the same time from the hallway. Then they got stuck in the doorway together.

"What the hell are you two numbnuts doing?" the captain asked, peering from behind them.

"Zerg!" Tony said.

"Drones! Mining!" Sony added.

They both got pushed in by the captain and fell on the bar's floor.

The captain pointed at Sony. "You! I've heard you've been threatening a SceeVee."

Sony smacked the floor with his right fist. "That's not important right now!"

"You should be thankful that you're part of this crew. If Hat Guy hadn't requested that we land on Char so he could barbecue his rhynadon steak, you and your buddies would have been gutted by the protoss then and there."

Sony got up from the floor and wanted to say something nasty to his superior, but an eerie yet calm voice popped up in his mind. It said, "You're welcome." He turned around to see Hat Guy, who stared at him for a moment before heading for the exit and turning mostly invisible – his sedge hat remained uncloaked.

"Requesting permission to warn everyone of impending doom, sir!" Tony said in his usual loud voice.

"Permission granted, Tony. What is all this ruckus about?"

"Sony and I saw a line of zerg drones, and it was heading south."

The captain crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'm pretty sure I've scanned all the areas outside of the valley yesterday evening, and there was not a zerg in sight. How can there be a line of drones when there was no leviathan here to bring more zerg?"

"I dunno, maybe you missed a spot," Sony said.

The captain grabbed Sony by the back of his shirt's neck and showed him the scanned areas of the map on his wristwatch. "As you can see from this map, there is not one spot out there that is black."

"What if they hid somewhere inside our valley? Most of it is unscanned."

The captain showed his gritted teeth. "Do you think I would not have seen the zerg if they showed up here? Magellan sat atop the Frigate the entire time!"

Sony shrugged. "Maybe they hid somewhere out of his sight range. You didn't exactly allow him to patrol the area–"

"That's enough!" the captain said. Then he looked at the lone blue ghost. "Agent 40!"

"Yes, sir ..." Spook said, not really eager to hear the orders.

"Prepare to launch a nuclear strike. I'll go scan the planet and tell you where to go."

Spook got up and grabbed his rifle. "I'm on it."

The captain's watch said there was an incoming call from Magellan. He tapped on it and answered. "Yes, Magellan. What is it?"

"Sir, we are dealing with a massive flood of zerglings. They have destroyed our ComSat station and are now trying to destroy our vehicles. Irradiation can only do so much to lower their numbers ..."

"Let's push them back, boys!" a marine in blue armor said as he grabbed his gun.

"This is gonna get nasty," a white-armored marine said.

* * *

The zerglings were busy finishing off the remaining bunker. Two of the SCVs had been torn apart, but fortunately for the terrans the pilots were safe inside the Frigate.

A shimmer moved through the valley and left undetected by the zerg. Then the marines came out, shooting at the zerglings, making the aliens back off.

"I got to get to my tank as soon as the zerglings are out of its way," Tony said.

Sony stood on the Frigate's ramp and looked at his vulture, which was parked next to the factory. "My bike's still in need of repairs. How am I supposed to go out there when I risk being blown up by my own ride?"

Tony looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Suddenly, you're worried about dying. Yesterday you were charging into battle without even knowing what you were getting yourself into."

"I don't wanna die yet, but if I'm gonna die, at least give me the chance to take some motherfuckers to hell with me! Nothing gets done if I'm the only one to get pulverized in the middle of nowhere."

"Well, there's no way to convince the SceeVees to get out there right now," Tony said.

"Fine! I'm going out to find the enemy base with my broken vulture."

"Wait! I'm coming with you, Sony."

The captain walked up to the tank driver and said, "You're not going anywhere, Tony. We need you to protect the valley's entrance. Magellan will transport you to the top of the southern cliff, and there you will go into siege mode."

"But sir–"

"The vultures are faster; they will go and attack any melee units the zerg may have. You are too slow to go among so many zerglings, and you are the only tank driver we have."

Tony lowered his head. "Yes, sir."

Sony saluted and said, "Ready to be roasted meat. _Sir_." He spat at the captain's boots and then left.

The captain glared at Sony, then turned around to look at the blond vulture pilot who was still in the bar. "Flynn!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Take your vulture and help Sony kill the zerglings. Employ spider mines if you must."

"On my way, sir!" Flynn said.

Just before Flynn could exit the Frigate, Tony went next to him and said, "Hey, Flynn, I have a small favor to ask of you. Tonight's beer is on me if you agree."

"Go on?"

"Usually, I get Sony out of trouble. But now that I'm not allowed to leave the base, he's bound to get himself hurt. Could you keep an eye on him for me, please? He's just a pup."

"Okay, man, but don't forget: I'll be comin' for that beer!" Flynn said while pointing at Tony.

* * *

The zerglings were gathering at the edge of the creep, preparing another attack that would cause some major destruction to the terran base once unleashed.

Spook was hiding behind a rock, waiting for his energy to be fully recovered so he could turn invisible again. He also hoped that the giant, floating, balloon creature called overlord would not come any closer to his area. If it were to spot him, his cloaking would be useless, because the overlord could easily sense his location and show it to the zerg's warriors.

The vultures' roaring engines announced their presence. The zergling mass split to allow the hydralisks to slither forward and prepare to counter the terrans' attack.

Flynn was the first to reach the edge of the creep, where the hydralisks and one of the new morphs stood guard. The multilegged creature dug its way under ground and threw a stripe of spikes from below, damaging Flynn's vulture. He had to back off, as his bike could not take much more beating.

Sony arrived and rushed past Flynn and the hydralisks, trying to go directly for the mass of zerglings.

"Oh, no …" Flynn said, realizing that Sony was going to get skewered by whatever the hell the burrowed zerg was. He turned around, took a few more hits from the hydralisk spines, and then went at full speed toward where Sony was. As soon as his vulture collided with Sony's, the spike strip went straight through Flynn's vulture, impaling its driver in the chest.

Sony froze in place and stared at the gruesome scene. His hands held a firm grip around the handlebars of his bike as he saw the other pilot's vulture explode.

"Move, idiot!" Spook shouted from behind the rock. "I'm nuking the place."

Sony snapped out of it and turned his bike around, leaving the area.

Spook turned invisible and took aim for the zerglings and the creature that lurked under ground. As soon as he turned the laser on, the missile took flight from the base, and the zerglings started screeching and running toward where Spook stood.

The nuclear bomb headed straight for the blinking red dot, exploding and killing off the burrowed zerg and severely damaging one of the three sunken colonies that looked like red, spiky plants in the shape of claws.

Still invisible and surrounded by around 20 zerglings, Spook pushed a zergling's head out of the way so he could raise his left hand to his ear. "Captain, I've delivered the nuke. Requesting evac or backup within thirty seconds!"

The captain called back. "Good job, Agent 40! But I am sorry to inform you that all of our forces are in battle elsewhere, so I cannot send anyone after you right now."

"Fuck you too, commander," Spook said before turning off his station. He still had about 20 seconds of invisibility left, so he decided to make his way out of the zergling crowd by pushing them away with ease. He was glad that most of the zerg were such simple creatures when not watched over by an overlord or by the even stronger overmind – the true brain behind the zerg's operations.

Speak of the devil, the overlord came to check up on the hive that was mutated from the lair. It noticed a shimmer near the edge of the creep and decided to investigate it.

Spook felt a familiar presence and looked at the same shimmering silhouette that the overlord focused on. "Is that Playboy? Don't tell me he's gonna …"

"Nuclear launch detected!" the adjutant AI's warning resounded in Spook's earphone, as well as in the stations of everyone else.

Playboy kept a steady aim, awaiting the nuke drop with a large grin on his face that nobody could see. "Hell yeah! Nuclear launch de–" He saw the overlord that was heading his way. "Postponed! Aaaaaa!" Putting his rifle in the holder on his back, he turned tail and fled as the nuke exploded harmlessly in the sky.

"Thanks for wasting our last missile, genius!" Spook said to him over the station.

"I didn't think … the overlard would come … to check me out," Playboy said between breaths.

Spook caught up with him and then pulled him behind another rock, becoming visible again. "Uncloak and stay quiet! We need to wait for backup and the confirmation of new missiles being available."

Playboy complied without question.

* * *

Fearing the threat of the terran forces, the zerg created a second hydralisk den in order to speed up the perfecting of their hydralisks' attack and movement speed. Their drones have morphed into five spore colonies surrounding their hive and their two new hatcheries. They also sent out three more spiky burrowers to guard the edge of the creep.

Somewhere in the back of the zerg territory, they developed a giant, green cavern made of flesh. Inside it, a creature slightly taller than a terran tank stared from the darkness. The only parts of it that got exposed to light were the bony blades it moved like scissors in front of itself.

* * *

Sony was driving around, killing zerglings in two shots as he made sharp turns every now and then. He kept expecting to see more of his military colleagues heading his way to scrape the zerg town. Was everyone dead already?

To his relief, the marines finally showed up. Among them, their sole firebat and the green ghost were marching, ready to offer their support.

"Alright! Now we can erase these aliens off the face of the planet!" Sony said.

The marines gunned down the remaining three zerglings and then went straight for the zerg cluster.

Sony followed them. "Destroy that sunken colony! You took so long to get here that the damn thing is almost back in tip top shape!"

One of the marines in blue armor went next to him and said, "How about you help us out by sitting in front and taking one for the team?"

Sony swallowed audibly while looking at the giant tentacle spike that came out of the creep's edge. It wiggled as if it waved at the terrans.

"C'mon! You got more armor than we have," the marine said.

"The thing could kill me with just two pokes of that thing!" Sony said.

"Pretty sure your bike could take more than that."

"It can't! It's still broken!"

Spook overheard them and decided to contact the captain. "Sir, has the ComSat station been rebuilt yet?"

"It's still under construction," the captain said. "It will take about 15 more minutes before it's up and running."

"Allow Magellan to come over, then! These morons are about to wander into the zerg's spike trap. We need something to detect the burrowed zerg!"

"Wait, what?" the blue marine said. Spook made sure that everyone heard the conversation.

Sony scowled. "That thing is still here?! Yo, Spook! I thought you–"

Spook cut him off. "Well, guess what? The zerg had more of them in the back. They're now burrowed at the edge of the creep."

"Have no fear! The cavalry's here!" Magellan said through everyone's station.

"Ready to pick them off!" Hat Guy said, standing atop Magellan's science vessel while striking a heroic pose with his rifle pointed to the sky.

"Hey! Why didn't you take me up there too? That would make a sweet camping spot for sniping!" the green ghost said.

Hat Guy giggled. "You wouldn't be able to hold on at the speed Magellan was going, Sniper."

The green ghost grumbled some insults.

"If you want to snipe something, go for the overlords!" Hat Guy said. "I'll keep the hydralisks at bay while Magellan irradiates the burrowed spiky ones."

"Nuclear missiles ready," the adjutant announced over the station.

"I like this plan!" Playboy said. "No overlords means we can nuke the crap out of this place!"

The hydralisks mobilized toward the edge of the creep, ready to fire their spikes at the science vessel that covered 500 meters square of the sky. They unfolded their head flaps. Suddenly, one of them had its head splattered by the snipe shot of Hat Guy, and a spiky burrowed zerg got irradiated, a greenish-yellow glowing cloud coming out of the ground where the creature stood. Then the burrowed one exploded, leaving a rose flower of blood over the ground.

Magellan inspected all views of his cameras and saw the orange outlines of two more hidden zerg under the ground. "Let's see... I've got two more rounds of irradiation charged up. This burrowed one will make a fine target." He irradiated it, and the creature burst out of the ground, running back to the hive while screeching.

The zerg drones ceased their gathering and moved out of the irradiated creature's way. They had learned from the experience of their fallen zergling and hydralisk kin that the weird cloud is dangerous and can kill anything that is unfortunate enough to end up touching it.

Sniper kept his eye on all the overlords that came near his colleagues, then he used his rifle to deliver powerful shots that killed the massive creatures in two hits. He enjoyed hearing the wheezing sounds the blobs of fat and hot air made as they fell from the sky. It was almost like deflating balloons.

Once the final overlord was dead and the two spiky burrowed zerg exploded due to irradiation, Playboy ran onto the creep without cloaking himself, gave the middle finger to the drones, and then pointed his rifle at the hive.

"Nuclear launch detected," the adjutant said.

Spook turned invisible and aimed for the hive as well.

Once more, the voice of the adjutant said, "Nuclear launch detected."

The two nuclear missiles fell one after the other, taking out the hive, the evolution chamber, the three sunken colonies, the queen's nest, the two hatcheries, both hydralisk dens, and the spawning pool that housed four zerglings with terrified expressions on their reptilian faces. Only a crater and smoke remained.

"Let's turn these drones into Swiss cheese!" one of the white-armored marines said as soon as the smoke faded away.

They managed to kill all five drones, and then prepared to fire at the green cavern. One of them squinted to see if there was something moving inside the fleshy structure. Indeed, he saw the bony blades of … something.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Magellan," Hat Guy said.

"I am detecting something of a rather large size in there," Magellan said. "I guess you could call it the equivalent of a bad feeling in an AI."

Hat Guy switched to the local area channel and said, "Guys, I think you should not engage whatever is in there. Sniper and I are out of energy, so sniping it is out of the question, and we do not have any nukes available."

"I'm still waiting for my irradiate ability to recharge," Magellan added.

"Holy crap, the thing looks like an elephant!" a blue marine said, backing off.

A thundering roar came out of the cavern as the monster inside began to step forward. It came outside, into the light, and revealed its face, which had two tentacles for a nose, along with one horn on the left and one on the right side of its head. The rest of its body had four strong, thick legs to support its weight, and a pair of sharp blades of bone was attached to its shoulder blades.

"I-I'm gone!" Playboy said, instantly cloaking.

"You might want to move out of the view of those spore colonies," Spook told him.

The giant zerg with blades charged at the marines, throwing them to the sides with ease.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!" the red ghost shouted while running away.

"Typical ghost," a blue marine said, "letting the marines do all the work while he gets to slip away unseen."

"This isn't a job for us ghosts," Spook said. "We need something explosive, but more reliable than a nuke. If only Tony were here ..."

"Wait! Explosive?" Sony said over the station to everyone. "I've got three spider mines packed up. Ya think they'll do us any good?"

Hat Guy pondered for a bit, then said, "It'll remove a considerable chunk of the ultralisk's health. Then Magellan could irradiate it. Alright, distract it, Sony!"

Sony started his vulture's engine, planted all three spider mines, and then drove toward the giant creature that kept chasing the terrified marines. "Hey, you weird elephant Cthulhu thing! Ya ever seen a frag grenade up close?" He shot a grenade into the face of the ultralisk, causing the zerg to roar furiously while stomping with its front legs. As soon as the ultralisk started to charge at him, he turned around and led it into the three mines, which exploded right under it.

"Irradiating cannon is almost charged, just keep circling him for three more seconds, Sony!" Magellan said.

Sony scowled after hearing that. "Oh, great … If I take one hit from this thing, I'm toast!" He brought the vulture close to the ultralisk and started to drive around it, confusing the beast. "You better not irradiate me by accident, Magellan!"

"Do not worry! My aim is perfect. Just move out of the way when you see the big fluffy cloud on the zerg."

After some more driving and shooting around, making the ultralisk barely able to hold its balance, Sony moved out of the way so that the science vessel could irradiate the creature. "It's all yours!"

Magellan beamed the green ray over the ultralisk, causing it to be covered by the cloud of death. It didn't take long before the giant zerg exploded into a mass of bones and flesh.

Spook, Sniper, the marines, and the firebat worked together to remove the ultralisk's cavern and the remaining spore colonies, cleansing the ground of creep.

"I have scanned all continents of this planet," the captain said over everyone's station. "There are no more zerg lifeforms detected."

"Are ya sure that everything's been scanned?" Sony asked.

"Look at the map. I've scanned every piece of land."

After seeing all continents revealed on the map on his bike's screen, Sony hoped the zerg were gone for real this time. But he just couldn't trust the captain's word anymore after prior failures to spot the aliens. He would not rest until he'd see no more zerg for at least one month from then.

* * *

Back at the bar, Tony sat at the counter next to Sony and then offered two crystals to the waiter. "One beer mug for me. Keep the other crystal and offer another mug to the first poor guy who can't afford it."

Sony could tell that something was eating away at Tony. "Hey, you okay, man?"

"I … I think I am. But our numbers are dwindling fast, Sony. Our colony will fail within a few years if we keep losing people and getting no replacements. Let's just hope the zerg will stay away from this planet from now on."

* * *

The night fell over the valley, leaving the blue moon as the only means of illuminating the area.

Inside one of the groups of barracks, two marines in white suits and one in blue suit decided to put two more ladders to get to Hat Guy's bed and then climbed up there. The blue-armored one snagged Hat Guy's mask with a swift motion of his hands.

At that moment, all three marines and Hat Guy screamed in panic.

"Holy crap, what is this bullshit?!" the blue marine asked, still holding Hat Guy's mask.

Everyone in the barracks woke up, confused by the racket.

Hat Guy giggled. "Oh, that's just a fake mask meant to protect my real one from dust while I sleep."

Ashamed, the three marines returned the mask to him and then went down the ladders. One of the white-armored ones said, "Uh … have a good night."

"Good night to you too," Hat Guy said. "Hmm … I must go outside and respond to the call of nature."

* * *

Outside, Spook was hiding behind the armed nuclear silo of the valley's second command center. He sat on the sand and stared at his rifle, pondering if what he was about to do was the right thing or not. Taking in a deep breath, he stood up and peeked from behind the silo to see if anyone was out there.

The valley was silent. Clearly everyone was either sleeping or trying to sleep.

Spook activated his rifle's low-frequency laser and pointed it at everything in front of him, trying to find the right spot for what he was about to do. He settled for the area that would cover the main command center, the two groups of barracks, and the factory. Sighing, he prepared to pull the trigger. But something inside his mind kept screaming at him to not do it. And it definitely wasn't his aggression inhibitor. He had fried that thing a long time ago.

The red dot faded away from the blue sand as Spook lowered his rifle. He felt an eerie presence, so he turned around to see if anyone was watching him. Someone seemed to be there under the moon for a split second, but as he focused his eyes, there was no one to be seen. He blamed it on his imagination, given the immense stress he was under at that moment.

As the blue moon continued to shine onto the valley, Spook slowly made his way back to the barracks. The pirates would live to see another day.

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Suspect of Treason**

It was morning, still dark before sunrise, when the waiter woke up and left the main command center. It was his sworn duty to be the first to wake up, because he had to make sure the food would be delivered to everyone who would show up at the bar.

His squatting SCV waited for him. He went in, made it stand, and started its legs' thrusters, which allowed for faster travel toward its destination: the science vessel.

"Good morning, Magellan! I'm ready to be beamed up!" the waiter said, standing under the hovering vessel.

"Good morning, Leroy! Bringing you on board right now."

The SCV got pulled into the science vessel's iris-shaped underside opening. Leroy was glad that he could get a good view of the valley every time he ascended that way.

As soon as the waiter was inside, he went to the room where the android could be found, so they could discuss the day's menu in person. The first time Leroy met Magellan that way, he was shocked to see that the android had three torsos connected to each other in a Y shape, with the ability to rotate much like the a steering wheel around a support in order to view several screens at a time. But after a few days, Leroy became best friends with the robot due to their shared passion for the culinary arts.

Magellan turned one of his heads around and smiled at him. "Could you please lend me a hand with making the potato salad? I have all my machines occupied."

"Sure thing!" Leroy said. "What do you need help with?"

"Grab a lemon from fridge number 4 and use the juicer to squeeze some juice from it, please!"

"Will do."

Fridge number 4 contained plastic bags of corn, peas, bean pods, mushrooms, and broccoli. One of the two trays at the bottom contained tomatoes and whatever other fruit that could not be seen due to the blurriness of the plastic tray's edge. The second tray contained only one lemon.

Leroy took that lemon out and then squinted at it. "Wasn't this tray full of lemons yesterday?"

"Indeed, it was," Magellan said. "However, Hat Guy requested that I give him a dozen lemons so he may practice his joggling skills. I could not refuse his unusual request, for fear of upsetting him. Our mysterious colleague harbors powers beyond my comprehension. I shudder to imagine what he could do if he bears ill will toward someone."

"You're saying we're at the mercy of some crazy ghost now?"

"I am afraid so. But don't worry, because I have plenty of lemon trees growing in my greenhouses, and they bear fruit in turns, to ensure the availability of lemons year-round. I'll have my robots pick some more soon."

"I just hope that the freak doesn't make any more ridiculous requests that could put me out of business. Things have been finally looking up for me ever since I became a waiter. Those scalawags used to laugh at me for having a mullet. They aren't laughing now that they need someone to deliver their food to them!"

"I am glad that you have found your calling," Magellan said as he looked at Leroy with one head, supervised his kitchen robots with the second one, and watched the view of the valley with the third. "To be honest, I, too, enjoy being a chef more than participating in wars."

* * *

Sony woke up half an hour later and went to the secondary command center of the valley. He began to mess with the computer of the SCV assembly line. The SCV was created in front of him in about twenty seconds.

"Damn, that was fast! Now to fix my bike with it." And so, Sony hopped into the SCV's cabin and inspected the buttons and screen. "Shit. I'll have to figure out what does what."

* * *

The green ghost, known as Sniper, had his eye on a group of native creatures that looked like a cross between reptiles and spiders with four legs. They reminded him of the protoss dragoons, with their clumsy walking and arachnid body shape. He was glad that these actually had visible snake heads with two small, beady eyes, because he could achieve headshots on them.

One of the arachnid reptiles was in Sniper's crosshairs, drinking from the waterhole next to the valley. It had no idea what was about to happen. The shot instantly took it out, but alerted the other creatures, which started to scurry.

"You're not getting out of here alive!" Sniper said, aiming for another prey. Unfortunately for him, his shot missed. He tried again, but still no luck. The shot went into the water. "For fuck's sake, stand still, you–"

The creature he had in his visor did remain motionless, but also oddly curled up into a ball, which was similar to the behavior of a wounded spider.

"What?!" Sniper said, lowering his rifle to get a view of the bigger picture. He saw Playboy, who simply passed by the deer-sized creature, dragging it after him without even touching it or tying it with anything. Sniper threw his rifle away and walked up to the red ghost. "Hey! You just stole my kill! Not fair! I've spent ages waiting for them to gather here, and you just waltz right in and take one with your telekinesis!"

Playboy put his capture on a rock and then said to the green ghost, "You and I are on the same team, man. The meat's still going to our crew." Then he grabbed the cleaver he left next to the rock and swung it for the creature's head.

* * *

Tony arrived at the bar and sat at the counter, as usual. He saw the waiter, who was heading his way. "Good morning to ya, Leroy!"

"Good morning, Tony! You seem to be in a better mood today."

"Well, I try not to dwell on negative thoughts for too long. It won't do me any good."

"What would you like for breakfast today?"

Tony put five minerals on the counter. "Ham and eggs with three slices of bread, please!"

"Coming right up!" Leroy said, taking the minerals and writing the order down.

The firebat, dressed casually instead of wearing his red armor, arrived at the counter and said, "G'mornin'. I'll have a burger." He gave three minerals to the waiter and then took a seat next to Tony.

"It will arrive in about ten to fifteen minutes," Leroy said, adding the guy's order as well before leaving.

"Hey, Tony! How's it goin'?"

Tony tried his best to lower his voice, because he knew that the firebat tended to cringe at his screaming. "Heya! As usual, bored of nearly everything. Sometimes I want to go hunt some stuff with my tank. Them ghosts seem to be having fun bringing the food in."

"Why don't ya go fishin'? There's lots of fish-like critters in the waters around here. Just saw the meanest looking spiky alien fish in the lake to the east yesterday evenin'."

"Spiky fish ya say? I don't know, they might be poisonous. I mean, there was this one guy … He commented that watching videos of fugu preparation online meant he was ready for cooking and eating the Earth fugu fish. Nobody heard from him ever again."

"We've got Magellan to test stuff for toxins," the firebat said. "That's how we've determined that those things the ghosts dragged in were edible."

Tony smiled. "Well, I'll think about it. Thanks, Brandon."

* * *

Playboy cut the lifeless body of the spider reptile into pieces small enough to fit servings. He was about to wrap it up in a plastic bag when he saw someone jog his way. That hat was easy to recognize even from that distance. "Good morning, Hat."

"Good morning, my ghost brother!" Hat Guy said cheerfully while throwing six lemons from one hand to another and jogging up to the red ghost.

"What are you up to?"

"Oh, just practicing my joggling skills with these lemons."

Playboy nodded. "Nice, nice." After noticing a certain blue ghost, he pointed and said, "Hey, look who decided to finally get out of bed! It's Spook."

"Good morning, Spook!" Hat Guy said, still juggling while jogging in place.

"It's in no way good," the blue ghost said.

Hat Guy let all of the lemons fall to the ground. Then, in a serious tone, he said, "Spook, is there something you want to tell us?"

"No," Spook said, staring at the ground. "Not really."

Playboy went between them and stared into the blue ghost's goggles with his own red ones. "Who are we kidding with that question? We already got our mental tentacles deep inside your brain right now. So fess up, Spook! What were you doing last night?"

"It's a good thing I wear a night mask," Hat Guy said, still sounding serious, "otherwise we wouldn't be here having this conversation."

"Look, if you want answers, just get them out of my brain by yourselves!" Spook said.

Hat Guy nodded. "I see. Well, I'll be going now. Got to practice my joggling skills." He picked up his lemons, turned around, and left.

"Keep your mind chill, Spooky," Playboy said. "I wouldn't like to see this place burn. It would be a pity."

At a loss for words, Spook decided to leave.

* * *

Sony finally got the hang of the SCV walker and managed to bring it outside, next to his vulture. He checked the screen and noticed that the SCV had multiple buttons there: one for mining, one for vespene gas tank carrying, and one for repairs. Choosing the latter, he was faced with the next two options: buildings and vehicles. He tapped the vehicles option. The SCV had a list of every flying and ground unit known to terrans, including some prototypes Sony had never seen before. "The fuck is a warhound? Looks like some jacked up SCV." After looking at the other vehicles on the list, he finally found the icon that represented a vulture bike, so he tapped it. The SCV started up its plasma welder and its scanner.

Sony's bike showed up on the screen, its damaged rear being highlighted in red as opposed to the rest of it, which was shown in green.

"Alright. Here goes nothing."

* * *

A small, yellow robot with eight extensions that looked like airplane wings wandered over the blue sand dunes as it carried a levitating green box in front of it. The robot's face had two large, green eyes, two smaller ones of matching color closer to the center of its face, and four even smaller, cyan ones toward its forehead – two of them lower than the others. It seemed to have a smiling mouth formed by a curved cyan light. The top of its head had a glass lid with a similar glow.

Hat Guy stopped in the robot's path while still juggling the lemons. He took a good look at the robot and said, "Is that for me?"

"Nyawww?" the robot said, tilting itself to the side.

* * *

After having breakfast, Playboy decided to go for a walk. Still, he wished he had someone to hang out with and do stuff he couldn't normally do with anyone outside of a relationship. Given the situation of their crew, he knew he couldn't be picky, but it seemed like there was no one to pick from anyway. He would have preferred to at least get close to one of the ghosts, since they shared the telepathic abilities, but Spook did not want him, Sniper was too quiet for his comfort, and Hat Guy … There were too many unknown variables for that one. Playboy didn't want to risk having his nuts mysteriously – and possibly painfully – disappear if he annoyed the strangest ghost of their group.

Some marines were playing football with a boulder. Their armor allowed for taking hits from the heavy ball, so they had nothing to worry about during the game. The goals were the mineral patches, which they planned to crack anyway so they could gather some shards to use as currency.

"Marines ..." Playboy said to himself. They were far too boisterous for him to even consider trying to hook up with one. Marines also scored very low on the psionic index, and probably just as low on the Kinsey scale. He'd be wasting his time.

A bit further from the improvised football field, Sony continued to work on his vulture while Tony watched him.

"I swear, this is just like on Mar Sara, man!" Sony said. "The SceeVees did not give a shit about vultures then, and they do not give a shit about vultures now. No wonder most of our Mar Sara vultures never came back."

"Vultures are skirmishers, usually," Tony said. "They're bound to get into trouble, even with repairs."

"They'd still have higher chances of escaping if their bikes were fully operational!"

Playboy watched the two guys and decided to try his luck again. He approached Sony's SCV and leaned against one of its legs. "Hello there, Sony!" he said, putting on his best seductive way of speaking. "Say, ever wondered what teeks are capable of?"

Sony squinted behind his glasses. "Teeks … Do ya mean people with the power of telekinesis? Yeah, I've heard of quite a few nasty incidents in which they were involved."

Playboy laughed. "Naw, those were just untrained people. But a ghost who can control such power can use it to do good stuff too. Want to know what it's like to get it on with a teek?"

"Huh?" Sony stared at him for a moment. "The hell?! I don't have time to fuck around! Go find someone else!"

"And so, I continue to be solo," Playboy said, disappointed.

Tony felt sorry for the guy. "No luck using your charm, Play?"

Playboy walked away, slouching as he said, "Meh, I think I'm losing my touch."

* * *

Spook had gathered Magellan, Rob, Harold, and the remaining seven blue marines. There were two more members they had to find. Sony and Tony. It wasn't too difficult to spot them in the middle of the valley.

Tony smiled at them. "Conference time?"

"Yes," Spook said.

"So, what else have you guys learned about this motley crew?"

Magellan beamed everyone up. Once they were all in the command room, he said, "From what I've learned, the SCV pilots are split into two teams: those who love their job, and those who would rather do other things. They are okay folks."

"And they play cards really well," Rob added.

"They're just a bunch of sloths," Sony said.

Harold, in his blue SCV, raised the drill arm and went next to Sony. "If I swing my drill at ya ..."

"Now, now, boys!" Magellan said.

"How are things going among the ghosts, Spook?" Tony asked.

"All three of them seem to have something to hide," Spook said.

Sony snickered. "Well, they're ghosts. Isn't that something usual for them?"

Spook stared at Sony for a few seconds, making the vulture pilot back off. "As I was saying, the presence of these ghosts worries me. Let's start with Sniper. The guy is ... quiet. Too quiet. It's like he's waiting for the right moment to strike. He is the easiest to keep an eye on though."

Tony shrugged. "Maybe it's just his sniper training influencing him in his daily life."

"I hope it's just that. Now let's move on to Playboy. At first glance, the guy seems to be nothing but a sex addict who's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But his powers ... They are on the high end of the PI spectrum. I wouldn't recommend letting your guard down while he's around."

"I don't know, he's never caused any trouble so far," Tony said.

"With people who possess telekinesis, you never know. Then there's Hat Guy ... He's the reason I cannot ever let my guard down. I feel his presence everywhere. He may even be listening to us right now." After saying that, Spook looked around to see if Hat Guy was anywhere near. "His psionic strength is immeasurable. I have never sensed such power in any human before. Not even the protoss can compare. I advise you to keep a safe distance from the freak."

"I do prefer to stay as far away as possible from you creeps by default," Sony said.

"Alright," Tony said. "Can anyone give us any info about the marines? Can they be trusted?"

One of the blue marines decided to answer. "They can be trusted to shoot anyone who messes with them. Marines aren't subtle when they plan to turn against ya, but as far as we can tell, the only one they want dead is the captain."

Tony frowned. "Well, the captain does have his flaws when it comes to leading, but I don't think it's enough to make him deserve death."

"If he keeps fuckin' up, you'll see him dead by the end of this week," the marine said.

"Okay," Tony said. "The only one left to discuss about is Brandon, the firebat. Doesn't seem to be planning on causing any trouble, and is a chill guy. Though he could cut down on those cigars, they seem to have given him a bad cough."

"Well, keep an eye out for any sign of hostility among the crew," Spook said. "We can't afford to have people tearing the group from inside if we want to survive here."

* * *

After everyone was placed back on the ground by Magellan's science vessel beam, Hat Guy made his appearance, holding the squirming yellow robot in his arms. "Hey, guys! Look what I found! Can I keep it?"

The robot screamed, "Nyaaawww! Nyaaaa-aaa-aaa-aaaaaa!" as it struggled to free itself.

Spook took a step back. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It's a goddamn protoss probe!" Harold said. "Kill it before it starts warping cannons in here!"

Hat Guy hugged the robot tighter. "Come on, guys! It's harmless! I named it Smiley, because it always smiles."

"I don't think that is its mouth," Tony said.

"Doesn't matter," Hat Guy said. "It still looks like it's smiling."

"I'll just go test my bike," Sony said. "It's best to be prepared in case that probe decides to shit out cannons in our base."

While Sony walked away, Hat Guy put the probe on the blue sand. The robot spun around in circles while chanting unintelligible words, relieved to finally be free of the ghost's embrace.

"Why is this probe here?" Spook asked. "Are the protoss planning on purifying this place?"

"This probe seemed to be lost. Whatever protoss civilization once lived here had left it behind. Smiley seems to have been tasked with gathering vespene gas, but there was no nexus to take the cube of gas it carried. I've added the cube to our storage in the secondary command center in the valley. I hope someone will be able to extract its contents."

"What's up with the crowd here?" Playboy asked as he arrived. "Oh, is that a probe?" He squatted next to the robot to get a better look at it.

"Nya?!" the probe said, backing off.

"Hey there! Want to get to know each other better?"

After hearing the red ghost's question, Smiley beeped and then replied with what sounded like a firm "No!"

"Please refrain from inappropriately touching the probe," Hat Guy said while his goggles glowed bright green.

Playboy distanced himself from the robot and said, "Alright, alright! I don't want my brain turned into a crisp."

* * *

Sony ignored his growling stomach as he checked his vulture's systems. He pushed the buttons on the handlebars, causing the launchers under the bike to unleash a pair of fragmentation grenades at a mineral cluster. Perfect. Now he also had shards to buy himself something to eat.

Before Sony could get out of the vulture, a large shadow was cast upon his vehicle. Then some large insect legs came into his field of vision from the sides.

Sony looked up and saw the levitating overlord that watched him with its big red eyes. It made a weird, deep squeal through the elephant trunk it had for a nose, then opened its ventral sacs from the sides of its body to drop four creatures that appeared to be zerglings. Not just any zerglings – they had fins growing from their spines, walked on four legs, and only had one pair of arms that ended in scythes held above their heads.

He chose to broadcast the video transmission to everyone, but he especially wanted the captain to see the zerglings behind his vulture. "'Ey, captain! Look at this! Have a complimentary 'Fuck you!' from me!" He sent the enemy coordinates to everyone as he drove away chased by the zerglings.

Tony drove his tank and positioned it in siege mode so he could get a good shot at the four zerglings that trailed Sony. Before firing, he contacted him and said, "Don't let them get too close to you, Sony! I'm about to blast them all to hell!"

"Alright, just hurry up! If I ram my bike into something, they're bound to jump on top of it."

Tony pressed the button, and his tank fired a loud, heavy blast of plasma that went straight for the zerglings, carbonizing three of them and causing one to run around screaming while leaving a trail of fire off its tail.

"Let's see if I can run it over," Tony said, getting his tank out of siege mode and driving it toward the wounded zergling. To his shock, the zergling was strong enough to push his tank back, not allowing itself to be crushed by the threads.

"What the hell, Tony? Ya can't just run these over!" Sony said. "Ya gotta make sure they can't stand before ya try that!" He drove his vulture toward the zergling, fired a pair of grenades at it, and then rammed it with the front of his bike, killing the zerg.

The captain made his appearance, followed by everyone from the crew. "Good morning, gentlemen. I have scanned the entire planet again and it appears that the zerg have resorted to hiding in the water now."

"I knew it!" Sony said to him. "I just knew you'd fuck up again!"

"This kind of zerg behavior has never been observed before! These new ones seem to have adapted to the aquatic areas, but they still need to build their hatcheries near minerals and vespene geysers in order to acquire them at an efficient rate. So they have no underwater buildings."

Sony scowled. "At this point it wouldn't surprise me if they do have them but you just didn't see them."

"I have scanned the entire planet. They're all on land. Check for yourself! They have three hatcheries to the south of our valley, one lair to the southwest, and one hive behind the mountains to the east. The hive is protected by most of their forces, and it is surrounded by structures that allow them to create more advanced strains."

Playboy checked his wristwatch to see the satellite photos taken of the hive cluster and noticed a fully-developed hive, seven sunken colonies, four spore colonies, one ultralisk cavern, a queen's nest, a spawning pool, an evolution chamber, a structure currently being mutated, four ultralisks, five buried zerg of unknown strain, at least thirty hydralisks, and hundreds of zerglings scattered all over the creep. "Oh, crap! I think a normal nuke just won't do. This is the kind of stuff that requires nuking from orbit. Multiple times, just to make sure everything's burned to the ground."

"We do not have apocalypse-class nukes," the captain said, "so we'll have to get by with what we have: our little army and a supply of two tactical nuclear missiles every five to ten minutes, depending on resource availability."

"I don't like the sound of that," Sony said.

* * *

While Tony, Magellan, Rob, and the SceeVees remained in the valley, the rest of the army went to take out the defenses of the closest three hatcheries that were placed exactly in the same spot as last time.

The captain launched a scan, revealing two hidden zerg under the ground. The marines knew what to expect: spikes. So they sent Sony out to distract the burrowed zerg through the use of grenades. Once he caught the beasts' attention and took a few hits, the marines were free to move in and gun them down, killing the creatures with ease.

A dozen zerglings charged at them, causing Sony to take his vulture behind the marines. From there he could assist with more grenades.

Spook's voice could be heard through all of his teammates' stations. "Watch out! Playboy and I are about to drop the nukes to take out that sunken colony in front as well as their zerglings! Keep them busy!"

"Understood," one of the marines in blue said as he fought off a zergling.

"Nuclear launch detected," was stated by the adjutant twice.

"Nuke knock!" Playboy said.

The zerg were also warned of the incoming missile, but their overlords were too slow to get there in time to detect the two cloaked ghosts. Instead, their zerglings chose to run all the way to the spot where the ghosts were, just to stay out of the blast's radius.

The marines noticed that they were within the nuke zone as well, so they joined the zerglings, huddling together to wait for the nukes to land.

"This is getting ridiculous," Spook said, squeezed between marines and zerglings.

Playboy decided to be more positive. "At least they didn't bring the overlards."

The two nukes landed and exploded, destroying the sunken colony and another buried zerg that was unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast.

Once the smoke had cleared, the zerglings and the marines continued their scuffles. The ghosts made their way out of the crowd and hid behind the big rock nearby and uncloaked, like they did the day before.

The firebat used his flamethrower to help the marines out, and in the end the terrans managed to kill all the zerglings. They would have to wait for new nukes to be available in order to get rid of the other sunken colony that guarded the closest two hatcheries. Going in there while their armors were severely damaged would be suicide.

"I miss the medics," one of the marines in white armor said.

"As soon as the nukes are ready, keep the overlords away from the edge of the creep so we can remain undetected!" Spook said to his crew.

A blue marine said, "We'll try, as long as they don't send something else after us. They seem to be trying to hatch nine eggs at once."

Spook looked around. "Where are the other two ghosts?"

"I'm atop the mountain to the north," Sniper said through the station. "I'm trying to get rid of their overlords."

He successfully fired a shot that went into the overlord's forehead. It didn't kill the creature, but made it retreat. Two other overlords started to fly toward the mountains, causing Sniper to become restless.

"Looks like I'll only be able to shoot another one and leave it severely weakened. After that I'll have to get the hell out of here before they find me."

"Do whatever you can, Sniper!" Spook said. "Now where is Hat Guy?"

The eggs hatched into hydralisks, which immediately started to advance toward the marines, their mouths foaming. Unlike the hydralisks known to most terrans, these had fins on the sides of their heads, and could spit spines coated with acid.

One of the blue marines that had a barely functional armor died impaled by the three spines spat at him by the hydralisk. The rest of the marines pushed their wounded comrades behind them so that they could be protected from the damage. To their horror, the zerglings were planning on attacking them from behind.

"Nuclear missiles ready," the announcement came.

"We're nuking the place!" Spook said. "Run! You don't stand a chance against an attack from both sides!"

"Over here! I've set up the trap!" Sony said to the marines while waiting next to the mountains.

The marines and the firebat ran toward the vulture, chased by the hydralisks. While the terrans made it there safely, the hydralisks tripped the three spider mines and got blasted to pieces.

"Now we only have the zerglings to worry about," the firebat said.

The zerglings rushed toward the terrans, but then suddenly stopped when they heard someone whistle. They turned around and saw … a floating sedge hat.

"Kiiirrrrrrr!" they chirped, starting to quiver and trip over each other.

Sony looked at the floating hat. "Is that … Hat Guy?"

"Seems like it," a white-armored marine said.

"Why are they so terrified? The hat gives away his position."

Six lemons appeared out of seemingly nowhere and started to move around, being juggled. There was something weird about the lemons. They had timers with red light display strapped to them.

The firebat wiped his visor so he could see the scene properly. "What's he doin' with those lemons?"

The zerglings started to run like crazy, trying to get away from the invisible juggler, but Hat Guy decided to run after them and then throw the lemons, one by one, toward the zerg.

Once all the lemons had been scattered among the mass of zerglings, the fruit exploded, causing severe burns and inflammation to the creatures. To the astonishment of the onlookers, the zerglings started to have trouble breathing, and then they died after one last collective scream.

"They're … allergic to lemons," Sony said.

Hat Guy revealed himself, and then poured salt into some bullets before he put them inside his rifle. Aiming for the overlords, he shot them, causing the beasts to wail in pain and sizzle away with each shot.

"That's pretty cruel, even by our standards," one of the blue marines said.

Hat Guy aimed at the sunken colony and then fired, causing the structure to try to uproot itself just to get away from the pain.

"I think we should put that thing out of its misery," Spook said to Playboy.

"Nukes away!" the red ghost said.

They both cloaked and went to nuke the hatcheries and colonies together.

Hat Guy moved out of the way as the nukes landed taking out everything the zerg had in that area.

"Now we only have that unprotected lair to remove," a blue marine said. "Without their expansions, the zerg will have a difficult time getting enough resources."

Sony went next to the lair to scout because he saw an egg there. He hoped it wasn't going to turn into another one of those ultralisks while he was out of spider mines.

The egg started to shake a few times before bursting open to reveal a creature that instantly took to the skies while expanding its blood-red wings.

Sony stared at the flying zerg while his jaw dropped. "It's a ..."

The creature stared down at him with the red eyes of its draconic head. Its long tail's tip looked like a mouth with fangs and what seemed to be a red tongue protruding from it. The tongue had a tongue of its own, and a pair of salamander hands.

"A mutalisk!" Sony said. "Oh, man! This really brings back nightmares from Mar Sara!"

"We're so screwed!" one of the blue marines said.

The mutalisk fired the creature that acted as its tail's tongue – known to terrans as a glaive wurm. The projectile separated from the tail, hit Sony's vulture, and then went straight into the mass of marines, killing a blue one and a white one while bouncing off the rest and explosively damaging their armors further. Then the glaive wurm exploded its last segment and died.

Magellan flew in and irradiated the mutalisk, killing it in about ten seconds. Then he dropped the goliath and the tank next to the lair and said, "The commander decided to use me as a dropship. By the way, the zerg have set up three spires in their main base behind those mountains to the east. A swarm of mutalisks is expected to arrive here soon."

"Great, more bad news," Sony said.

Ten mutalisks could be seen heading their way. They swooped in and started to throw their glaive wurms, but Rob managed to kill off two of them. Magellan irradiated two of them as well, causing the mutalisks' entire group to become sick. The marines decided to help out, shooting the fliers as fast as they could.

The captain brought the Frigate to the battlefield. Its size and its six large cannons on its sides made everyone expect the ship to be extremely powerful, but then its shots turned out to be just spectacular fireworks that couldn't do more than tickle the mutalisks.

Sony scowled. "Fireworks. Are you for real?"

"Captain? What made ya think this was a good idea?" a white-armored marine asked on the local area channel.

"I thought the zerg might get scared of the fireworks," the captain said.

Mutalisks began to attack the frigate. A few small, eyeless zerg fliers known as scourges joined in as well, exploding upon impact with the giant ship.

Magellan's voice joined the discussion. "Oh, that's poppycock, sir!" Then he irradiated another mutalisk, causing most of the flying zerg to die out.

One mutalisk tried to escape with only a sliver of health remaining. It flew past Sony and then moved out of the way to reveal … a rifle shot, which went straight into Sony's left lower arm.

Sony gritted his teeth and closed his eyes tightly. "Fuck! Who did this?" When he finally managed to open his eyes, he saw Spook with his rifle lowered while staring at him. The ghost started to head his way. "That dirty traitor! You're not getting me alive!" Sony said before driving his vulture away.

"We must retreat! Most of our men are unable to fight!" the captain said.

Hat Guy shot the last mutalisk and then followed the rest of the crew back to base.

* * *

As everyone entered the valley, Playboy was telling Hat Guy, "Nukes are so versatile, I swear they're the solution to every problem! Ultralisk herd? Nuke it. Fleet of protoss carriers? Nuke it. Enemy nuclear silo? Nuke it. Hatchery in your base? Umm ..." He stared at the zerg hatchery that towered between the refineries, in absence of the Frigate.

The SceeVees returned to the valley after building some missile turrets atop the cliffs to prevent flying zerg from entering the area. They gasped once they saw the zerg structure where they least expected it to be.

The captain left his Frigate at the entrance of the valley. He grimaced at the sight of the hatchery. "Oh, look at this thing! It's where my Frigate should be! Agent 69! Proceed to leave a crater where this abomination lies!"

Playboy looked at the refineries and the command center near the place to be nuked. Then he looked back at the captain. "You sure about that?"

The captain pointed at him. "Are you questioning my orders?"

"Sir, I think a more delicate approach would be better," Hat Guy said. "We don't want our refineries destroyed too."

Tony started to bandage Sony's wounded arm.

A marine went next to the captain and whispered, "Captain, wanna step down and let someone else be the leader?"

"Zip it and clean up this mess, soldier!" the captain said.

As the marines began firing at the hatchery, Spook asked Playboy, "Is that really your agent number?"

Playboy snickered, then said, "Nah, but the captain doesn't know that."

"I will be working on something that will be able to heal our people and fix our machines," Magellan said. "We can't keep fighting the zerg like this."

"Sounds like a plan," Tony said.

"Unfortunately, it could take until tomorrow, so we'll have to hold off the zerg until then."

"Let's hope our bunkers and missile turrets will hold for now."

After the hatchery was removed, the frigate could finally land and act as a bar again. Meanwhile, Sony sat outside and roasted the zergling he had turned into roadkill in the valley. He was so hungry he didn't want to wait until it was his turn to get served lunch by the waiter.

Inside the bar, the marines were discussing how to get rid of the captain. One of the white-armored marines had the first idea. "How about execution by firing squad? Simple and traditional."

A marine in blue armor said, "Sounds good, though not really fun. We need to do this with style."

"How about taking him out vespene pie style?" Hat Guy asked while petting his probe on the head.

One of the white-armored marines stared at him with an expression of disgust on his face. "Dude, no. I saw you do that to one of those guys who tried to capture us on Nidhogg III. Nobody deserves to die vespene pie style."

Sony arrived with a roasted zergling leg and overheard the discussion. He went next to Tony and whispered, "What does 'vespene pie style' mean?"

"One of the marines told me about that incident …" Tony said, shuddering. "Trust me, you don't wanna know."

Squinting his eyes, Sony stared at him. "Oh ... Oh man! Holy shit, that's so barbaric it should be considered a war crime!"

Not wanting to ask any questions about Sony's strange behavior, Tony said, "It is. Hat Guy is the reason why there was a law created and agreed upon by all terran factions that specifically deems it as too cruel to be used for executing people. Some would pay big bucks to have Hat Guy shot for that incident."

Spook took a seat next to Sony.

The vulture pilot scowled and pointed at the blue ghost. "What are you doing here, traitor?"

"Sony, I apologize for what happened back there. It was an accident."

"You were aiming at me!" Sony said, smacking the counter with both of his fists.

"I was aiming at the mutalisk!" Spook said. "It moved out of the way! Were you blind?"

"Guys! Guys!" Tony said. "Let's not jump to conclusions now."

"I saw him! He would have shot me in the head if I hadn't moved my vulture!"

Spook sighed. He got up from the chair and grabbed his rifle.

Sony jumped on top of the counter. "Whoa! You're here to finish what you've started, huh, motherfucker?" Before he could understand what was going on, he found himself with Spook's rifle in his arms. "What?!"

The blue ghost said, "If you really think I'm a traitor, then feel free to take this, point it to my chest, and pull the trigger."

Sony held the rifle and stared at it. "What the hell?! I don't ..." Then he got down from the counter and pointed the gun at the ghost while holding it under his left arm and keeping his finger on the trigger. "Maybe I really should get rid of you. You ghosts are psychos anyway; it's only a matter of time until you snap."

"If you're gonna go through with this, at least hold the rifle properly," Spook said. "I don't want anyone else to get shot."

Sony just stared at him and said, "Huh?"

The blue ghost walked up to him and showed him how to hold the rifle. "You put your left hand under the area just before the muzzle. Then you pull the trigger with your right hand." With that said, he walked back to the wall and faced Sony once more.

Playboy and Sniper were too distracted by the scene caused by Sony and Spook to notice what was going on right next to them. Hat Guy's goggles began to glow brighter, and all the cutlery on the ghost table started to levitate.

Sony pointed the rifle at the blue ghost again. "Any last words?"

"Just pull the trigger already!" Spook said.

Sony tried to do so, but then lowered the rifle. "You know what? Fuck this! I can't. The zerg are still out there. We need everyone if we wanna win this war."

Hat Guy's goggles returned to their normal glow. The cutlery fell back on the table.

Sony pointed his finger at Spook. "But mark my words: if I see you try to harm me or any of our teammates, I'm going full speed into you with my vulture!"

Spook nodded. "Alright. Now, let me show you something, Sony boy." He began to take off his shirt.

Sony scowled. "What?! Dude, keep your shirt on! I don't wanna see you naked!"

Spook finished removing his shirt. His well-developed muscles made the marines and Sony feel intimidated, but when the ghost turned around, Sony's envy disappeared once he saw that the ghost's back had a gray, metallic spine with blue glowing liquid that moved up and down its tubes. "You see ... while I was part of the Confederacy, a teammate messed up too. He fired his siege tank at some enemy marines that were right next to the cliff where I was standing. The cliff's edge broke off with me on it. It was a long way down."

Sony's mouth remained open as he heard that.

Spook continued. "This story could have had a happy ending, if only the Confederacy had not considered me too valuable to lose. They came after me, and forced me to live. A paralyzed ghost would be of no use to them, so they gave me a new – but barely flexible – spine. I was back on the battlefield the next day, whether I liked it or not." He put his shirt back on and then joined the other three ghosts at the ghost table.

Sony could find nothing to say. He dropped Spook's rifle and went back to the counter, where Tony was waiting for him.

* * *

At night, the two bunkers were filled with four marines each, and the entrance was guarded by six spider mines to keep the ground enemies out. The missile turrets would keep the fliers out of the valley and alert everyone should anything get within their sensors' ranges.

In the barracks, Hat Guy tried to put his pet probe on top of his chest, since they wouldn't have enough room in the same bed otherwise. "Good night, Smiley!"

"Nyaa-aw?"

It took about half an hour, but everyone in the barracks managed to fall asleep in spite of knowing that the zerg were still out there.

The probe started to get bored, so it warped a pylon in the middle of the room. Then it decided to go for something bigger. It opened up another warp portal.

Three of the blue-armored marines woke up. One of them asked, "Is it doing what I think it's doing?"

Rob woke up as well. After noticing the growing size of the warp portal, he said, "I think we need to G.T.F.O. A.S.A.P.!"

Everyone, including the probe, rushed outside just in time before a protoss gateway burst out of the barracks.

"Tony! Get the tank!" one of the blue marines shouted.

Spook stared at Hat Guy while keeping his arms crossed at the chest and tapping his right foot on the ground.

Seemingly oblivious to the damage the probe had caused, Hat Guy said, "It might take some time until Smiley is housebroken."

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Patching Things Up**

Smiley quivered inside the makeshift doghouse – or shack – that the SceeVees had put together for it. The probe warped in a pylon that was the fourth one in front of its shelter. They made it feel safe. "Nyoow ..." it said, flipping its large eyes' green lenses from the top. At least the shack protected it from the heavy rain.

The lightning lit up everything to announce the ground-shaking thunder that followed and echoed in the night. Every time it happened, it caused the probe and the eight marines inside the bunkers to flinch. With zerg still roaming the planet, it was difficult for anyone to not expect a fight to start out of nowhere.

It was 4 AM and Sony had barely managed to sleep for two hours until the noise from outside woke him up. His left arm started to ache again, reminding him of what Spook had done to him. He still wasn't sure if the ghost tried to get rid of him or if it was indeed an accident. Leaving the freak alive better not be another one of his mistakes.

The thunder may have been louder on this strange planet, but the rain was just like on Mar Sara. It was one of the few things he had enjoyed both during his childhood and his teenage years – although only while he was inside a building. Being sent out on missions during rain was not one of his favorite situations.

It was a shame that Mar Sara got glassed. It had nice canyons and long straight roads on which he could race against the other bikers. There was no time nor place for racing once he had been added to the Sons of Korhal. Many of the military forces from Mar Sara chose to join that Raynor guy's Rangers group. Sony regretted not being allowed to join. Arcturus Mengsk wanted those minerals from Char badly to prepare his forces for future assaults on the Confederacy, so he sent miners and some defending forces – of which Sony ended up being part – to acquire those resources. Then Harold just _had_ to be a dumbass and pick the minerals that were next to a protoss camp.

The thunder struck at the same time as the lightning that shone a bright blue light into Sony's room.

"Freakin' lightning ..." he whispered, rubbing his sore eyes. His glasses could have spared him the pain, but he didn't put them on at night. The flashes reminded him of the menacing, blazing protoss archons that had chased him and the others on Char while throwing psionic shockwaves all over the place. It was like fighting lightning itself – unpredictable and extremely dangerous. Mengsk did not want to risk losing more men by sending backup or dropships for the squad on Char, so he simply cut off all communication with them. If there was one thing Sony was grateful for when it came to captain Betelgeuse, it was that the guy and his pirates had saved him and his colleagues from being shocked to death by the archons.

But what was to become of the former Sons of Korhal forces on this planet? They chose to paint their armors and vehicles blue as a middle finger to Mengsk's red army, but what was the point when they were now stuck on a planet nobody seemed to know about and on the brink of being claimed by the zerg? Questions like these kept him up at night ever since they had landed there.

* * *

At sunrise, Harold went into one of the refineries to help out with vespene gas extraction. The other SceeVees took most of the containers out, leaving only three next to the conveyor. He was about to use his SCV's arms to lift the transparent canister that had a metal frame and was full of green gas, but then he noticed that something wasn't right about the ground in that spot.

The cracks were a telltale sign that something was buried there. Normally, he'd request a scan to make sure he could handle whatever buried things he'd discover, and that it wouldn't move around by tunneling. This time, however, he chose to use his drill and scoop out anything he could find.

It didn't take much drilling, because something bit the head of the drill, allowing Harold to bring the creature out. It was a drone with a big dorsal fin. He grabbed it with the SCV's wrench by the scruff of its neck, causing the drone to hiss and buzz and growl like a mix between a rabid dog and cat. It refused to let go of a sac its claws were holding.

"Hey, guys! Look at this thing!" Harold said to the other SCVs.

"It's a drone, Harold," an elder SceeVee said while the rest of them watched from behind him.

"I know it's a drone, you old coot! Look at what it's holding!"

"Hmm, what did it do to that gas? I've never seen them carry purple vespene gas before."

A stream of purple gas began to come out of the hole in the ground.

"Oh, so that's where it got it from," the old SceeVee said.

Harold removed the fleshy, gas-filled ball from the drone's claws with his drill. "I'll take the sac to Magellan for analysis. You guys get rid of this drone."

The drone struggled, dangling in the SCV's wrench and making all kinds of demonic noises. "Rrrrrrhhh! Schaaaaaraaa! Urrrrgh!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the bar, the marines were having breakfast. One of them in blue armor started the conversation. "Last night I went to talk to the captain and I raised some concerns regarding the colonization of this place, what with the rapidly shrinking population and all. He said he has a solution."

"So _now_ he realizes it's a problem," a marine in white said. "Is he gonna go find us some women?"

"Nope. I wish!" the blue marine said, frowning. "He told Magellan to research some method of assisted reproduction that – if I understood right – involves getting skin cells and turning them into eggs that will then be fertilized in vitro. The result would be put in some kind of incubator that can grow babies."

The other marine raised an eyebrow. "No shit, Brian?"

"No shit. He said he wants to try breeding the ghosts first to see if he can make even stronger soldiers by combining their genes."

The ghosts, who sat at their favorite table, overheard the discussion.

"There's no way to convince me to take part in that insanity," Spook said. Seeing Playboy drink a glass of milk disgusted the blue ghost further.

Hat Guy lowered his sedge hat to cover his goggles. "I will have to respectfully decline the captain's invitation."

"He's not getting any gene donations from me," Sniper added.

Playboy rubbed his exposed chin. "Well, I'd volunteer for the experiment."

"Get out!" the other three ghosts shouted at him at the same time.

The red ghost flinched at their reaction. "The idea sounded interesting; just saying."

"It is an experiment destined to fail," Hat Guy said. "We do not have enough people here to avoid inbreeding. We'd still be wiped out within one or two generations – and I am just being optimistic here. We currently have only 36 people with shaky health and not really the best genes. Successful colonization starts with a minimum of 80 people. We can't even afford to set up a daycare."

Sony looked at Tony. "We have only 36 biological members?" Then he started to count. "There's 12 SceeVees, four ghosts, 16 marines, one firebat, one goliath pilot, one tank driver, one vulture pilot, and the captain. That should be 37 unless Hat Guy is not counting someone."

"Well, maybe he really is a robot," Tony said.

* * *

Outside, three missile turrets launched their rockets at a scouting mutalisk, killing it almost instantly.

The eight marines who stood in the bunkers overnight left the structures and went to the remaining barracks to get a few hours of sleep. In their place, the eight other marines who had finished eating breakfast split into two teams of four to occupy the bunkers again.

The captain was next to the secondary command center in the valley. He was discussing with Magellan.

"So, how does it work?"

"Well, Captain, the healing ray works on biological targets that have been wounded. It requires open wounds, otherwise the nanites cannot reach the tissues that need to be healed."

The captain looked around. "Who will we test it on first?"

"Some of our marines and our vulture pilot got wounded during the last fight," Magellan said.

"Then the vulture pilot will be your test subject."

* * *

In spite of his protesting, Sony was dragged outside by two marines. Tony followed them to make sure his friend wouldn't get hurt.

"I'm not yer fuckin' lab rat! I'm not gonna let you put whatever the hell that is in my arm! What if I'm allergic to it?!"

"Calm down, soldier!" the captain ordered, raising his right hand to gesture he'd give Sony the back of it if he'd continue to thrash about.

Sony went quiet and stared at him with eyes so wide his tinted glasses could no longer hide them.

"Magellan, please explain to this simpleton how the nanites work," the captain said.

"Alright. Listen up, Sony! This healing ray I've developed can send tiny robots into your body. These tiny robots then get to work by injecting some substances that will stimulate your cells to divide. This results in rapid regeneration of tissues that had been damaged. It works faster than even the regeneration of the zerg."

"All I want to know is … if it's safe," Sony said, looking pitiful from Magellan's point of view.

"According to my calculations and the tests I've ran on the lab monkeys, it should be safe."

"Okay ..."

The marines released Sony, allowing him to unwrap the bandages of his left arm. He showed the scabbed wound to Magellan.

"There's just one little problem," Magellan said.

Sony looked at him, expecting the continuation to make his blood run cold.

"You have damage that went all the way to the bones, and the dried up blood between them would be blocking the nanites from reaching the bone tissues. Your wound will have to be opened again. A knife will do."

Sony swallowed audibly. "A knife ..." He showed his gritted teeth while looking distressed.

"Yes. Can you reopen the wound or should someone else do it for you?"

Sony started to look around, planning his escape. "I don't think I'm capable of … of stabbing myself with a knife. But I don't want to get stabbed either!"

"I don't care what you want, soldier!" the captain said. "If you getting stabbed is what will help us, then you're getting stabbed."

"This'll be fun!" a marine in white armor said, bringing the knife.

Sony raised his right hand. "Uh … can I make a request?"

"No," was the captain's answer.

"Please! At least let Tony do it!" Sony said, trying to back away from the marine.

Tony pointed at himself with his hands. "Me?!"

"I'd rather let someone I trust do this to me than get stabbed by someone who clearly doesn't have my best interest in mind," Sony said.

"Alright then," the captain said. "Tony, you've heard him."

Tony had a sad look on his face as he stared at Sony. "I-I'll do it. Just … give me the knife."

Slightly disappointed, the marine passed the knife to the tank driver.

Tony grabbed Sony's shaking left arm with his left hand. "Okay, buddy, I know this is gonna hurt. I'm sorry." With his right hand, he pushed the knife into his friend's arm.

Sony's scream reached all the way to the freshly rebuilt zerg base past the mountains to the south.

* * *

"This next test will be for the mechanical repairs ray," Magellan said. "I could test it on a marine's armor, but I'd rather perform the first test on something without the risk of killing people. So a vehicle will do."

"My tank volunteers," Tony said. "Sony, I'll let you do the damage. I trust you to not turn it into scrap metal."

Sony, now fully healed as if he had never been shot in the arm, gave him a thumbs up. "You got it! I'll go get my bike."

After the vulture was brought to the scene, Tony watched as his tank got nearly totaled by six grenades fired by Sony's vehicle.

"I think that will do," Magellan said. He started the repair beam and sent the nanites into Tony's tank.

Everyone watched as the tank went from nearly a pile of trash to looking brand new with not a scratch in sight.

Inside the science vessel, Magellan grinned. "Ah! Success!"

Tony looked inside his tank and saw a bunch of jutting spikes of metal. "Magellan? I think the nanites need some adjustments or something."

"Oh. They didn't know what to do with the remaining liquid metal I guess?"

"Seems like it," Tony said. "I'm glad I wasn't in there to get impaled."

"I will add a few lines of code to make them know when to stop adding material. It may take another hour until it's ready."

"I don't think the zerg want to wait that long," Brian said while pointing at the swarm of seven mutalisks that was approaching the valley.

"Crap," Tony said.

"Goliath online!" Rob announced, bringing his walker to the front.

The marines went into the bunkers and prepared to shoot.

The captain looked at the vulture pilot and pointed at the valley's entrance. "Sony, go out there and report if any zerg ground forces are heading this way! We need to be prepared to launch some defensive nukes at the entrance since Tony can't operate his tank."

Sony scowled. "Why does it always have to be me?"

"Because you're the fastest! I don't want our specialists out there nor our marines with damaged armors, they're not likely to make it back to base if shit hits the fan."

"Fine, I'm goin'. Might as well plant some spider mines while I'm there. The zerg blew up the ones I've left there last night."

* * *

The ghosts were busy destroying a pylon in front of Smiley's shack.

As the pylon crumbled, Hat Guy said, "That's the last of them."

"Your probe needs a chew toy," Playboy said. "Or the protoss equivalent of one."

Spook pointed his weapon at the robot. "His probe needs to be acquainted with the end of my rifle."

Playboy looked at the blue ghost. "Aw, come on, Spooky! It's not hostile to anyone!"

"It's just bored," Hat Guy said. "It needs a purpose."

"Well, what _can_ it do?" Spook asked while looking at Hat Guy.

Smiley proceeded to place a pylon in front of the bunkers. Once it finished warping it in, the probe created two new warp portals and brought in a pair of photon cannons which began to shoot the bunkers.

"Run!" Brian shouted while getting out of the damaged bunker. The other marines got out as well and ran with him to the center of the valley while the photon cannons started to shoot after them.

The mutalisks flew over Sony's bike, but they ignored it. They wanted to breach into the terran base, and those cannons just had to go.

"Wonderful. Now we can't keep our marines inside the bunkers because your stupid probe's cannons can't tell friendlies from enemies!" Spook said while pointing at the remains of the bunkers.

"Well, actually," Playboy said while pointing at the eight marines, "if we replace the bunkers with photon cannons, we would have automatic ground defenses at the entrance while freeing up our marines to do the fighting outside. Magellan can just pick us up and then drop us on the other side of the cliffs while avoiding the cannons."

Spook looked at him. "You know, you're not as dense as I thought you are."

"If there's one thing you should have learned as a ghost, Spooky, it's that you should never judge people so fast. I wasn't one of the Confederacy's best agents for nothing."

The blue ghost wasn't sure if he should be glad his crew had Playboy on their side, or if he should take the guy's words as a threat.

Playboy shook his head and walked away. He sent one more message via telepathy to Spook. _"That doesn't mean you should be so paranoid."_

* * *

Sony planted the last of the three spider mines and kept staring at the remaining three mutalisks that were still trying to destroy the photon cannons. There was no sign of ultralisks, hydralisks or zerglings in the area. _At least there won't be too much pressure put on our defenses._

Seeing that the cannons were still going strong, one of the mutalisks retreated toward where the vulture was parked. The other two fliers died being torn apart by the photon blasts.

"Shit! Shoo! Shoo!" Sony said while seeing the mutalisk fly toward his position. Its shadow fell right over the bike, but to his surprise, there was no glaive wurm launched at him.

The mutalisk wrapped itself in its wings and then its skin began to swell. It turned into a lump of floating meat.

Sony opened the public channel. "Uh, guys? There's a mutalisk here that's doing something weird."

"What exactly?" Brian asked him over the station.

"It looks like it turned into a cocoon or something."

"Sony! Get the hell out of there! Get back to base right now!" It was Tony's voice.

"Yeah, but … the cannons!" Sony said.

"To hell with the cannons!" Tony said. "You'd survive a few hits of those! There's no telling what's gonna come out of that cocoon!"

"Target locked!" Rob's robotic voice said.

Sony looked at the goliath that approached him.

"Rob! Do not engage!" Tony ordered.

"Let Rob do his job, Tony!" the captain said.

The cocoon began to hatch. Sony stared in awe as multiple segmented legs and a pair of thick claws came out of the thing. The hatching creature's mouth was between two tusks. It had four fangs that looked and moved like fingers on the top lip while its lower jaw had twelve thinner fangs. Its lack of eyes added to Sony's unease as he continued to stare at it.

Rob used his goliath's missile launchers to fire a pair of rockets at the giant zerg, but then he received a splash of acid on the windshield. He used the missile launchers as arms to wipe off the gunk from the window, only to notice that the flying zerg had moved out of his launchers' reach. To make matters worse, the creature still managed to fire another ball of acid at him, blocking his sight again.

"Oh, man!" Sony said, trying to figure out which way to drive.

Rob was already retreating, receiving more hits to the back of his walker. "Mayday! Mayday! Situation is F.U.B.A.R.!"

Sony selected a channel on the station. "Captain! The zerg morphed into a giant crab here, and it tore our goliath a new port! Send evac! Now!"

"I'm sending Magellan over."

True to the captain's words, Magellan came to retrieve the goliath and then went for Sony, who was doing his best to avoid the crab zerg's yellow acid balls that it threw at him.

"Hurry, Sony!" Magellan said.

Sony got hit twice. "This is as fast as it can go!"

Magellan chose to advance, at the risk of being attacked by whatever the new zerg was. He managed to reach the vulture and beamed it up into his vessel.

The crab zerg bumped into the vessel and started to inspect it with its top fangs. "Urrrgh. Ururururu!"

"It appears this strain of zerg cannot attack anything that flies," Magellan said.

Sony scowled. "Then what the hell is it doing right now?!"

"Since it can't see anything, it is trying to figure out what it has bumped into. Fascinating!"

"Get us back to base! Now!" Sony said.

"Alright! Hold on tight, guys!" With that, Magellan made his vessel fly toward the valley, leaving the crab zerg behind.

Two more zerg of an unknown strain flew after him. They looked like larger mutalisks with red beetle wings and more horns around their mouths. Their tails were still capable of opening up and ejecting projectiles, but instead of glaive wurms, they fired a purple, viscous liquid that landed on Magellan's science vessel.

The ship started to become slower, allowing the two creatures to catch up.

"Oh, fiddlesticks!" Magellan said. "I can't irradiate them yet because I've disconnected the cannon to test the repair rays."

Rob made his walker go toward the iris in the center of the vessel's lobby. "Requesting drop."

"No, Rob! You don't want to get that purple stuff shot at ya!" Sony said.

"I. Don't. Care. Requesting drop. Now."

"Well ..." Magellan said as the iris opened. "It's been nice knowing you, Rob."

As the vessel beamed him down, Rob looked at one of the two fliers. "Target locked." He shot a pair of missiles at the creature. Then another pair, and another, and another ...

Sony was astonished. "They're only chasing _us_. They seem to not bother with Rob, even though he's firing at them."

One of the fliers was eliminated, so Rob proceeded to attack the remaining one.

Magellan's vessel was nearing the valley. "We're almost home!"

The crab zerg started to go for Rob. It would take a while before it would get close enough to fire its long-range shots. The goliath pilot kept retreating while shooting the target, taking advantage of the crab's lack of speed and the target's inability to shoot at the ground.

Once the zerg flier near Magellan was eliminated, Magellan picked Rob up and transported him and Sony back to the valley, dropping them there.

"That crab thing has a long attack range," Sony said. "It probably won't even need to get in the range of our turrets and cannons to land shots. We need to do something or else we're toast!"

"Leave this to us," Hat Guy said while turning invisible. The other three ghosts did the same and followed him to the science vessel, which picked them up and took them out of the valley.

The ghosts went toward the crab zerg and prepared their guns.

Playboy looked at the floating sedge hat next to him. "Uh … Hat? Won't they notice you're here because your hat is still visible?"

"I actually want them to see my hat."

"Whatever you say."

"If we shoot fast enough, it won't have time to react," Hat Guy said.

The crab creature saw the hat and changed its course, making it its goal to get rid of the hat-wearing menace.

 _"Snipe it if you can,"_ Hat Guy said through thought projection.

 _"How do I do that?"_ Playboy asked.

 _"You charge the shot with psionic energy and then you shoot."_

 _"Got it."_

 _"I don't think it's working for me,"_ Spook said.

 _"Just assist us with normal shots then,"_ Hat Guy told him.

As soon as the crab zerg was within their shooting range, Playboy, Sniper, and Hat Guy unleashed their psionically enhanced shots that tore the creature apart. Spook felt somewhat left out of the fun, but at least the crab thing was gone.

* * *

"The mechanical repair nanites are ready to be safely used," Magellan announced. "I have removed the spikes from inside your tank, Tony. Now to fix Sony's vulture." He fired a beam of blue light toward the vulture, and all the damage caused by the acid was swiftly fixed. "There we go! Now for the marines' armors."

"I'll go first," Brian said. "Fire away!"

The science vessel beamed the nanites into the marine's blue armor, fixing it but leaving it with unpainted patches.

"You'll have to excuse the lack of paint. These nanites would lose efficiency if they had to also repaint what they're fixing."

Brian smiled. "It's okay, Magellan. As long as the armor's fixed, I'm a happy camper."

"I'm glad I can be of service. Now I'll have to hook the irradiating cannon back and then figure out how to provide a strong enough power source for all three of these. I'm afraid the Titan reactor is too weak to power all three of them."

"Psst! Magellan! Beam me up! I've got a plan," Playboy said.

Magellan took him aboard and allowed him to enter the control room. "Well, let's hear it."

"Let's make a deal: I help you hack into the Sons of Korhal systems so we can find out more about any new tech and other useful info they got, and you let me browse for some stuff of … how shall I put it … _personal interest_ off the hypernet. What do you say?"

"Hmm … I do want to acquire more knowledge, especially when it can help us beat the zerg, so I think we have a deal. But I must ask you to not make a mess here when you're done. I like my vessel's rooms spotless."

"Alright. Just give me a computer and I'll get to work."

* * *

Tony went to get his helmet from his room in the factory. He put it over his short, black hair, and then went to test his tank. He fired it twice and destroyed the weaker of the two photon cannons. Then he used the station. "Hey, Hat Guy! Tell the probe to replace that cannon. I had to test the tank, and we need a fully functional cannon anyway."

"We're on it," Hat Guy said. He went to get the probe, which was harassing one of the SCVs with its particle beam. After whistling, he said, "Come here, Smiley! We need a new cannon over there."

Smiley warped in three cannons instead of just one around the pylon. While this meant its allies had to stay further away from the entrance, the zerg also had a tougher time breaking in.

* * *

One hour later, the eight marines were ordered to wake up and prepare along with the other eight. Tony and Sony were ready. The ghosts … not so much. They were missing one member, who was still inside the science vessel.

* * *

Playboy uncloaked while sitting on a chair in front of a computer screen and keyboard. "I'm done here. Now let's go tell them about what we found out."

"Not so fast!" Magellan said before the ghost could leave the chair. "Take those crumpled tissues and throw them into the incinerator!"

"Oh, sorry. Forgot about them."

* * *

"Alright, men!" captain Betelgeuse said as he stood in front of the army. "Magellan and Agent 69 have hacked into the Sons of Korhal database and have made some rather interesting discoveries. Tell them, guys!"

Playboy went near the captain while barely holding his laughter back. "Right. Well, the first thing we found out is that the Sons of Korhal have taken over the remains of the Confederacy's forces and now call themselves the Terran Dominion."

There were cheers coming from the crowd.

"Unfortunately, they turned out to be even bigger assholes than the Confeds," he added.

"No surprise there," Sony said.

"But enough about those scumbags. What you need to know is that we've found out about the new weapons of the zerg. That crab thing is called a guardian. It can only target ground units. Those buffed up mutalisks that shoot purple stuff out of their asses are called devourers. They can only target air units, and they slow them down with the acid. The things that burrow and then shoot spike strips are called lurkers. Also, there's one more strain that we haven't met yet. I hope we never will."

"What does it do?" Brian asked.

"The defiler – man, I don't like the name of the thing one bit – is some kind of giant lobster with sharp teeth. It doesn't attack directly, but it brings disease and pests wherever it goes. You don't want to be puked on by that thing. You just don't!"

"I also have an announcement to make," Magellan said. "I have studied the purple gas that our SceeVees have found in one of our refineries. It is similar to vespene gas, but it seems to enhance pisonic powers of some creatures, but may kill others. Fortunately, it seems to not harm primates, so we might be able to use it on our people. There might also be some new devices I could create for our vehicles thanks to this gas, but we'll need more of it."

"Good thing we took over this valley before the zerg did, huh?" Hat Guy said.

"Then I'll have the SCVs gather more of that stuff right now," the captain said.

Hat Guy put his left hand on the captain's right shoulder. "Sir, we do not have containers that can store this very volatile gas. I believe this gas might be what the protoss call the Breath of Creation. They consider it a gift of the xel'naga, the ancient race that created them and the zerg. If it is indeed the gas that the protoss cherish, then I believe we should let Smiley extract it."

"Fine, we'll have the probe extract it. As for the rest of you … You'll be going out there and removing the zerg expansions again. After that, we can proceed to contain them for the night and get some rest. Tomorrow we'll be ready to make use of whatever new technologies Magellan can come up with."

* * *

After being dropped off by Magellan, Tony proceeded to clear the way by blasting the sunken colonies as well as the lurkers pointed out by the science vessel. The marines and their firebat moved in to destroy the hive and got attacked by twelve hydralisks. They weren't worried; they knew that all they had to do was go back just far enough to drag the zerg into the area where Tony and the spider mines waited for their chance to blow something up.

"Here we go!" Tony said, pressing the red button. The shot was launched, blasting four hydralisks.

Four more died while tripping the spider mines. This caused the remaining four to scatter in an effort to avoid the splash damage.

"Oh, they're getting smarter!" Tony said.

"Smarter. Heheh, sure … Now we can easily pick them off one by one," Brian told him.

The sixteen marines and the firebat focused their attacks on each of the hydralisks and killed them before they were within arm's reach.

A loud but distant roar could be heard from the east. It was an ultralisk. A few seconds later, the giant zerg showed up, accompanied by two more of its strain for good measure. The swarm of zerglings coming from the west was going to make things worse.

"We'll have to split up," Sony said. "Tony can't deal with so many at once. Magellan! Irradiate the ultralisks and keep Tony safe! A few of us will go keep the zerglings away."

While most of the ghosts remained with Tony to form an invisible barrier in front of him, Spook chose to go with Sony. Two blue marines and a white one followed him.

Sony's team managed to trick the zerglings by pretending to retreat and then shooting at them. The tactic helped them get rid of all twelve zerglings. Then they noticed there were three eggs about to hatch near the lair to the west.

"We'll have to get rid of those too," Sony said.

* * *

Tony's team managed to get rid of the three ultralisks with no casualties on their side. Any damage received was easily repaired by Magellan's nanites.

Brandon coughed violently and then raised his visor to get a breath of fresh air.

"You really should stop smoking those cigars," Tony told him.

"What's the point of givin' up on cigars when all th' smoke I've inhaled by doin' my job messed me up already?"

"Well, cigars aren't helping."

After coughing some more, Brandon said, "I'm too far gone, Tony. Might as well enjoy what's left to enjoy before I kick th' bucket."

Tony frowned. He opened a private channel. "Magellan?"

"Yes, Tony?"

"Can those nanites of yours–"

"Only open wounds, Tony. They won't work on Brandon."

Tony sighed. "I understand."

* * *

Sony's team managed to kill the mutalisks that had hatched from the three eggs, but the situation was desperate. Two of the blue marines were in pain while the white one wasn't moving at all. Sony's bike was trashed and its pilot was dragging himself out of the contorted metal.

"Damn it! Does … Does anyone around here have a functional station?"

One of the two blue marines heard Sony and answered. "Mine's making weird sounds. I don't think it's working anymore."

"Mine's completely destroyed," the other marine said, pointing to his bent helmet.

Sony looked around and saw the white-armored marine that lay motionless on the ground. There was no point in asking that one. A bit further from them, Spook was spread on the ground, with his face buried in the sand. He was still breathing, but apparently unconscious.

"There's got to be some way to call for backup," Sony said. _I can't send radio transmissions, but what if …_ He started to think of the captain and tried his best to send a mental message to the guy. _"Yo! Captain! Take us out of here! Captain! We're behind the mountains to the south! You read me? Captain! Hello? Hello? Someone? Anyone? S.O.S.?"_

"You're wasting your time, kid."

Sony turned his head to see Spook awake.

"My station's totaled too, but I could try to contact the captain telepathically," Spook said, still lying on the ground and holding a hand over the wounded right side of his abdomen.

"Alright then, do it!" Sony said, barely holding the upper half of his body off the sand. "We're dying here!"

Spook took in a deep breath and then focused his mind. He chose his words carefully, and then sent his message through his brain waves.

* * *

The captain was examining the map. The team that went to the west was no longer displayed. _Those fools must have died._

Then he heard Agent 40, yet somehow the voice was in his head. _"Captain! This is Agent 40. We need evac right away! Our lives are hanging by a thread. Respond, please!"_

Betelgeuse looked around. Then he checked the station. There was no signal coming from Agent 40's radio equipment. Did he turn into a ghost and come to haunt him?

 _"I am the other kind of ghost, you moron!"_

The captain looked around again. He was sure no one was actually speaking to him. Was he going mad?

 _"Fuck's sake … No, you are not hearing voices. This is a telepathic message. Scan the area on the west side of the southern mountain chain and get us out of here! Now!"_

In hopes that he was still sane, the captain scanned the area he was told about and saw his missing men, who were all on the ground. He quickly contacted Magellan.

* * *

A few minutes later, the science vessel arrived where Sony's team agonized. Magellan checked through his cameras to determine the situation of the people below. Sony, Spook, and the two blue marines had a faint orange outline around their bodies. The marine in white armor had no outline at all.

The healing ray was used on the survivors, who were then beamed up into the science vessel. Sony's vulture had also been reconstructed within one minute of use of the nano-repair ray and then pulled up into the ship.

Tony, the rest of the marines, and the firebat got rid of the hive and lair, then they were beamed up as well and taken back to base.

* * *

"It's a miracle you guys survived," the captain told Sony's team.

"Well, not all of us," one of the blue marines said. "Poor Bobby ..."

Spook pointed at the captain. "That was no miracle. If I hadn't contacted you, you would have written us off as dead!"

Betelgeuse shrugged. "I'm sorry. I have never been contacted telepathically by ghosts before."

"Sir, the probe has gathered sufficient purple gas to be used for our experiments," Hat Guy said. "This gas could be used to enhance our ghosts' abilities. Requesting permission to train the ghosts to use it."

"Permission granted."

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Human Side**

Hat Guy chose to bring the ghosts to the cave in the cliff behind the Frigate's parking spot. It was a quiet place where the others were less likely to bother them. He made a fire in the middle of the cavern instead of bringing a flashlight.

"What do we do now, Hat?" Playboy asked.

Hat Guy lifted his hat and revealed that underneath it he kept some purple gas in a bong. "You take a whiff of the gas from this thing. But I must warn you: while the protoss consider this gas a blessing, it can also be a curse. It will increase your psionic powers, but it will also unlock memories that may have been taken from you. You must do your best to maintain control over yourselves as you regain these memories."

"I swear, if this thing makes us sick, I'll attempt to murder you," Spook said while choking the air.

Hat Guy remained unfazed. "You'd be dead before you'd even move a muscle. Now, who wants to go first?"

Playboy raised his right hand, so Hat Guy passed the bong to him. The red ghost removed the lower part of his mask and proceeded to take a deep snort of the bong's contents.

Hat Guy snatched the bong from him. "I said a whiff, not a full inhalation!"

The red ghost began to flex his muscles. "Ah! Feels so good! Mmm!" Then he froze. "Hey! It's all coming back to me now! Or almost all. There's one part that's pretty hazy ..."

"What do you see?"

Playboy tried to concentrate. "Well, there is this blank portion between the time this sexy lady ghost lifted a rock the size of my head and the time I woke up on the Frigate ..."

"Yeah, the Breath of Creation can only do so much. It won't fix damage caused by blunt force," Hat Guy said.

"My real name is ... Wait a minute! No wonder they sent me as an infiltrator and made me seduce rogue agents! Before the Confederacy took me away, it seems I was a ... porn star?! I was Tavi Dice! I had a dream job, and these guys ruined my life! Man, I'm so angry I feel like a hundred tentacles are coming out of me right now!"

The cave's rocks began to levitate and then orbited the red ghost.

Hat Guy looked around. "Avoid getting hit, guys!"

The rocks caught fire and continued to spin faster and faster.

"Power … overwhelming!" Playboy said while holding his fists in front of himself.

Hat Guy whacked the red ghost's head with the butt of his rifle, knocking him out. "Our friend here needs to chill for a bit and get used to being a 9 on the PI scale." Once the rocks dropped, he said, "Your turn, Spook."

"Alright. Pass me the bong."

Hat Guy gave him the container and let him take a whiff.

After giving back the bong, Spook said, "I don't feel any different."

"It has increased your strength, and your PI level went from 6 to 7."

"That may be true, but I haven't recovered any important memories. I already knew that I was an engineer on Tarsonis and that the Confederacy slaughtered my friends to get to me. That stuff didn't go away with a simple mind wipe. That aside, training, murder, destruction ... It seems like that was all there was to my life under the Confederacy and Sons of Korhal. Oh, and my name is Vincent Blight, but who cares anyway?"

Hat Guy took his hat off. "My condolences, Vincent." He put his hat back on and said, "Sniper ... it's your turn."

Sniper grabbed the bong and sniffed the gas. He remained still for about a minute, during which a flood of memories overcame him. In his mind, he heard a chainsaw and people screaming. He felt anger. Fearing that he was losing his identity as the dependable sniper, he snapped out of the trance and gasped.

Hat Guy went closer to him and said, "Just a word of warning: I'll off you the moment you even _think_ about turning against your teammates."

Sniper lowered his head. "I'll play nice."

"The Breath of Creation has increased your PI level from 7 to 8," Hat Guy said. Then he took some capsules from a box. "Now, each of you must take one capsule of jorium, because this gas can be addictive. You do _not_ want to be addicted to the stuff; trust me."

Playboy regained consciousness and grabbed the capsule that Hat offered him. The blue and green ghosts took one as well, then all three swallowed the pills.

A question popped up in the red ghost's mind, so he decided to ask. "Hey, Hat, why aren't you taking any of the stuff?"

"That is a good question, Tavi," Hat Guy said. "All I can say is that it will have no effect on me. But I can assure you that I am still _way_ above you in terms of power. So don't get on my bad side."

That last part gave Spook the chills.

"Anyway, I must cook an omelet," Hat Guy said, grabbing a frying pan and twelve eggs from behind a rock. "If any of you wants some, tell me before I add the peppers. I like mine _extra_ spicy."

* * *

Half an hour later, the ghosts came out of the cave. Playboy was still feeling the pain from the hit he had received to the back of his head. At least he could think clearly.

Spook decided to talk to him. "So ... are you actually Octavian Dice?"

Playboy took off his mask and revealed his head. He had long, curly, blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a chin covered in stubble. "In the flesh!"

"I must say, I enjoyed the shows you've put on when you used your telekinesis to perform all those moves in the air with those actresses. Especially in the video where you and that blonde were wrapped in that water bubble above the ocean."

"Those were the days!" Playboy said. "If some studio ever finds out I'm alive and contacts me, I'd be there and ready to go as soon as they say 'Action!' "

Brian and two marines in white armors were discussing something. Then he saw the unmasked ghost. "Hey, look! Is that ... ? It can't be!"

"Sure does look like him," one of the other marines said.

The third marine looked at the red ghost. "Tavi Dice?! He was here with us the whole time?!"

Brian approached Playboy. "I can't believe my eyes! Are you really–"

Playboy grinned at him. "You saw my work too, huh? Well, no wonder; there was only one teek in Tarsonis' porn industry."

"Can we have your autograph, please?" Brian asked.

"I'd be glad to give you my autograph, but there's nothing I can use to sign ... Hold on! I can just use my newly-acquired pyrokinesis to burn my signature into your armors." He swiped the surface of the shoulder of each marine's armor with his index finger and signed it.

"We thought you died when a spotlight fell on you," Brian said. "At least that's what the media told us."

"The media had to use a lie to cover up for my disappearance. The Confederacy dragged me to the Ghost Academy to make a ghost out of me, but boy did they not anticipate the trouble I would stir there."

"Whatcha do?" one of the white marines asked.

Playboy grinned. "I was shagging their 'ripe' lady trainees left and right, almost daily. It sure pissed off the staff there, but I pointed out to them that the rules only stated that we're not allowed to have _romantic_ relationships. So as long as it was just for quick rounds, they couldn't expel nor punish me. Though I bet they were getting off while watching the camera footage, heheh."

"You sure showed them!" Brian said. "So, what did you do once you became an official ghost?"

Playboy's smile started to fade away. "The Confeds had some trouble when a bunch of ghosts rebelled. Those rebels kept nuking our stuff, so the Confeds decided to send me after them. I had to pretend to be a rogue ghost like my targets, seduce them to get them vulnerable, read information from their minds, and then ... get rid of them."

"So you were kinda like the male version of a femme fatale."

"Well, I guess you could put it that way. But I often hesitated, especially if I was really attracted to the rebel I was luring into my trap. When the Confeds found out I was letting the nice ones get away, they dragged me back to the academy and then they beat the _crap_ out of me."

"Damn, man!" Brian said. "I was expecting them to resort to resoc, but not brute force."

"I had it coming after the many times I've pissed the staff off. They made sure I was following orders after that. I lured rogue agents in, as usual, and after the fun was over ... it was _curtains_ for my captures. I was trained to use anything as a weapon: an empty glass bottle, a vase, a belt, pillows, poison, nukes ... I even used a corkscrew once. No wonder the ghost ladies from my side wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe my struggle to find a partner nowadays is my punishment for all those betrayals and murders."

"Those slimy Confederates!"

"Meh, Sons of Korhal isn't any better. I thought they were assholes for leaving Spook and his team with no backup, but, according to what I've found while hacking into their systems, they even left a large army along with Sarah Kerrigan – their strongest ghost – as food for the zerg."

"Is there no leadership that isn't fucked up?"

One of the marines in white interrupted them. "Hey, you know what I've been wondering? Why do you ghosts always sleep with your masks on? We marines can't get rid of our armor until Magellan figures out how to remove it, but you guys can just take that stuff off."

Spook decided to answer that question. "We ghosts have been trained to always expect to be assaulted. Once you become a ghost, you can never truly rest. You need to be fully suited so you can be ready to fight off threats at any time."

Playboy laughed. "A lot of good that training did all those ghosts I've dealt with, even the ones who chose to remain almost fully suited during the 'tango'."

"There will always be gullible people," Spook said. "Anyway, if you guys are curious to see what I look like …" He took off his mask. He was a man in his early 20s with short, black hair. A scar cut his left eyebrow. His eyes – they were actually ocular implants – had irises similar to camera shutters and were light blue. He turned their glow off to not scare the marines. "My real name is Vincent Blight. I used to be an engineer at Tarsonis Engineering until the day the Confederates came for me. My drinking buddies put up quite a fight to help me escape, but they got killed and I got captured anyway. As a ghost, I had missions that required me to kill some ground troops, lock some battlecruisers, nuke some buildings, steal some documents – the usual stuff."

Sniper chose to take off his mask as well, revealing that he had short, sandy hair with a tuft dangling in front of his forehead. His eyes were natural, with gray irises. He seemed to be in his late teens.

Brian stared at Sniper. "You look familiar. I think I saw you in a newspaper once."

Sniper had a large smile on his face. "Yes, I was in the newspapers a couple of times ... Does the name Timothy Linkman ring a bell?"

Brian shrugged. "Nope. I didn't know how to read back then."

One of the other two marines laughed and pointed at him. "He _still_ struggles to read."

"Ye, ye, buzz off!" Brian said while punching him in the right shoulder. Then he looked at Sniper again. "So, whatcha do, Timmy?"

Sniper grimaced for a split second after hearing that name. He raised the sleeve of his right arm and looked at the sentence he had tattooed on his wrist. _Fuck the world!_ "Some things are better left unsaid."

The other three ghosts gave him piercing stares.

Sony, who was carrying a spider mine, was listening in after noticing the unusual sight – unmasked ghosts chatting up casually with the marines. He remembered seeing Spook as a trainee at the academy on two occasions. At first, the guy was a nervous wreck, paranoid about anyone and anything around him. The second time, Spook wasn't agitated, but he had a blank, unfocused gaze. After hearing about the crappy lives ghosts went through, Sony no longer envied them. They were just humans. Broken, tortured humans.

"What about you, Hat?" Playboy asked.

"I prefer to not disclose anything except for the fact that I used to be part of the Shroud – the Confederacy's elite team of ghosts."

"I've heard of them," Brian said. "Creepiest ghosts the Confederacy had to offer."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Shroud's headquarters, one ghost that looked similar to Hat Guy, minus the hat, walked down a dimly lit hallway. He looked at a room that had its door wide open. Its interior had nothing but white furniture and carpets, and was illuminated by white light.

Another ghost like him came from the other end of the hallway. "You still worried he might be back?"

"I thought I'd be able to relax once that hat-wearing freak was gone, but it's been three months now and I _still_ feel uncomfortable whenever I pass by his room."

"Same here, brother. Same here."

* * *

Betelgeuse paced back and forth in front of his crew while holding his hands joined behind his back.

The ghosts had put their masks on before the meeting started. They didn't really respect the captain enough to show him their faces.

"Alright, boys," the captain began, "now that everyone's been healed and all our vehicles and gear have been repaired, it's time to get rid of the new hatchery the zerg have set up in the southwest. After that we can get rid of the lair in the south and proceed to block the zerg from getting out of that other valley from the southeast."

"Excuse me for interrupting, Captain, but I have great news!" Magellan said.

"Go ahead, Magellan. Tell us about it."

"With the help of the purple gas, I have managed to create a reactor that will allow me to use all three cannons at once. This means faster healing, faster repairs, and more rounds of irradiation."

The captain smiled. "Fantastic work, Magellan! This will greatly enhance our chances of surviving the next battles."

"I am still working on one more project that involves this gas," Magellan said, "but it may take until tomorrow to complete the tests on the lab monkeys and an SCV. I will let you know when I have results."

"We'll be looking forward to the updates on that project. Now back to our plan of attack."

Sony butted in. "Do we even have one?"

The captain glared at him.

Sony glared back. "Look, Cap', you just keep sendin' us out there with orders to attack and not enough scans done over the locations where we will be fighting, and then you hope we somehow come up with a plan on the spot. Tony would have been overrun by the zerg if we hadn't split off to stop those zerglings that came from the west."

"Soldiers have to be resourceful," the captain said.

"Sometimes your soldiers need evacuation, backup, and confirmation on whether they're dead or alive," Sony said.

One of the blue marines who had been rescued last time nodded. "Yeah! We woulda been left for dead if it weren't for Spook!"

Spook leaned against a wall of minerals and said, "It wouldn't hurt to actually learn about your soldiers' abilities either, Captain."

Once more, the captain was being reminded of his lack of experience as a leader. He had never been through any actual wars up until meeting the zerg. Instead of admitting it, he chose to just say, "Sometimes it's best to be unpredictable in battle. If the zerg knew we were scanning their area, they would have set up more defenses there."

After reading the captain's thoughts, the ghosts' opinion of him dropped so low that they were seriously considering taking pity on the other soldiers and stealing the Frigate to fly them off the planet with it.

"We would know about the defenses if you'd scan just before we'd move in for an attack. We could change our strategy based on the scan," Sony said, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. _This guy can't be this stupid, can he?_

"Now look here, boy!" the captain said while pointing at the vulture pilot. "Your job is to scout up ahead, plant spider mines, and warn the others of what's coming their way. I did _not_ give you orders to take control of these men for your crazy plan of getting rid of the zerg forces from the west side. Let me remind you that you've also put Tony in danger when you tried to kill those drones a few days ago. You expect me to waste a scan whenever you choose to disobey my orders and get the crew in trouble?"

Sony was growling at him. As a sergeant, he was used to leading ground troops to battle. He knew what they could do and what they were weak against. The captain seemed to know nothing except to order his men to attack or steal. How they were going to do either of those things was up to the imagination of the soldiers unfortunate enough to receive those orders.

The captain looked at the rest of the army. "You all will go out there, get rid of those expansions, and contain the large hive cluster to the southeast. The SCVs are to build two bunkers at the entrance, and missile turrets all around the zerg valley. Do I make myself clear?"

"We still don't know the situation around those expansions, sir," Brian said.

"I will scan them right now," the captain said. He used his wristwatch's touchscreen to order a scan on the southwestern hatchery. "The new hatchery is now a lair and is guarded by two guardians and five mutalisks. I see no buried zerg there. That overlord might be a problem for our ghosts." Then he checked the south of the map. "The lair to the south is guarded by one guardian, four mutalisks, and a bunch of hydralisks. Four overlords are present there. Try not to get spotted by the zerg from that area while you attack the lair of the southwest."

Sony looked at the map. The hydralisks were awfully close to the southwestern lair. There was no way they could sneak past those. "Yo, Captain, I think–"

The captain pointed at him. "Can it, soldier! I want you to go plant spider mines to the west of the lake next to the southern zerg base, then to make the mutalisks chase you while Magellan irradiates them so that the marines can kill them faster. Those are your orders. Stray from them and I'm gonna let the zerg fight over your bones."

Sony was _so_ done. "You basically just ordered me to go die, but I read ya loud and clear, you piece of shit!" He spat in the captain's direction and started the engine, then drove away, leaving a trail of dust behind his vulture.

* * *

The pirates began to gather near the lake that separated them from the southern zerg base. A dozen hydralisks and three overlords could be seen on the other side.

Sony knew from the moment he saw the situation on the map that getting to the western lair would be impossible without attracting the hydralisks from the south.

The marines marched on while chanting, "Captain's dumb and full of shit! Captain's dumb and full of shit! Doesn't know his lack of wit! Doesn't know his lack of wit!" They didn't broadcast it to the captain, but they made sure the rest of the guys nearby heard their version of a marching song.

Once all his men gathered at the designated location, the captain said, "Good. Now that you are there, sneak your way to the west side."

"Ignore those orders!" Sony said on the local area channel. "We won't make it past those hydralisks. Tony, put the tank into siege mode on the edge of the lake! It should reach the hydralisks from here. The water will slow them down a bit, and our marines can gun them down before they get to you."

"Taking over again, I see!" Tony told him. "Well, your plan sounds better than the one the captain came up with, so I'm with you, old buddy!" He switched his tank into siege mode. "It's time for me to dispense some indiscriminate justice!"

Brian and four marines in white armor chose to follow Sony's plan, but the rest ignored him and attempted to sneak past the hydralisks.

Seeing that the hydralisks were already heading toward the sneaking marines, Sony decided to do something. "Yo, ghosts! Can ya hear me?"

"We hear you," Spook said.

"Cloak and go keep those fuckers safe! They'll never make it to the lair alive otherwise!"

"Are you really going to follow that guy's orders?" Sniper asked Spook. "Last time, he put you in danger by making you attack mutalisk eggs."

"We distracted the zerglings and the mutalisks long enough for Tony and the others to destroy the zerg defenses in their area. Since we have reached the goal, I say us surviving past that point means the plan wasn't so bad after all."

"You guys could have announced the captain to scan the area before you charged in like that," Sniper said.

"We could have, but telling him we were going to ignore his plan would have probably just sparked a heated argument with him and he'd deny us a scan."

Sniper crossed his arms at the chest. "Look, do what you want. I'm just going to stay here and snipe overlords."

Spook looked at the other two ghosts next to him. "Playboy? Hat Guy?"

The red ghost and the black ghost looked at each other. Then Playboy looked back at the blue ghost and said, "We're coming with you, Spook."

Spook opened the channel and said, "Alright, Sony, we're going with the other marines."

"Can I nuke stuff?" Playboy asked Sony.

"Uh … sure. Just don't get detected, okay?" Sony said.

"I'll stay out of sight."

Tony started to shoot at the hydralisks every time they approached the shore of the lake. The zerg from the south reacted by sending in the guardian and making their hydralisks retreat from the lake's edge.

Sony looked at the science vessel above him. "Alright, Magellan, this is where you come in!"

"Irradiation cannon is ready," Magellan said. He flied his vessel toward the guardian and shot it with the beam. Within mere seconds, the screeching crablike zerg exploded and rained pieces of flesh onto the hydralisks below.

"Now we only have the mutalisks to worry about," Sony said. Then he heard a loud blast and felt the earth shake under his vulture. He looked in the direction of the bleeding western lair and saw Spook, Playboy, Hat Guy, and the marines who were running away from a bunch of angry mutalisks.

"I told you to aim for the mutalisks first, but no, you went for the lair directly," Spook said.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were ready to launch the second nuke," Playboy told him.

"I was busy keeping the hydralisks off our marines' backs!"

Sony saw the swarm approach and decided to give new orders. "Magellan! Irradiate the mutalisks! There's too many of them for our marines to handle."

"Understood," Magellan said, irradiating four mutalisks while healing Spook and the marines the moment they got close enough.

The marines made short work of all eight mutalisks and then gathered around the tank.

"So what do we do now?" Tony asked Sony.

The captain contacted everyone. "What are you numskulls doing?! I did not authorize a nuclear strike yet! And why are you all huddled at the lake?"

"Just shut up and scan the area west from here if you want that lair gone!" Sony said.

"You dare bark orders at me, boy?"

"Okay, fuck this!" Blocking the captain's channel, Sony contacted the others. "I'm goin' to check the western lair. If the coast is clear, nuke the lair."

"And if it's not?" Sniper asked.

"If it's not, then I hope someone will save my ass before the zerg tear me to pieces. Here I go!" He started the vulture's engine and drove away.

Tony kept the hydralisks at bay while Sniper and Hat Guy sniped the overlords. Five mutalisks remained above the southern lair. They knew they would get irradiated if they dared approach the tank that kept laying waste to their ground forces.

"Coast is clear, guys!" Sony said. "But you better nuke this thing fast. I see three eggs here."

"We're on it," Spook said. He gestured to Playboy to follow him.

Sony passed the two ghosts by and then returned to where the tank was. He saw a flock of six devourers that was coming from the east. "Magellan! Rob! Devourers incoming from the east!"

"All systems ready!" Rob said. "Let them come!"

"I'll try to irradiate as many of them as possible," Magellan said.

A mushroom cloud could be seen in the west. That was when Sony knew the ghosts had succeeded in removing the lair.

The devourers lost three members of their group almost instantly to irradiation and to the goliath's missiles, but they managed to land their purple corrosive acid on Magellan's science vessel and damage it enough to cause it to crash next to the tank.

"Magellan! Are you still with us? Answer me, Magellan!" Sony shouted over the station.

"Oh, fudgecake! My thrusters are all damaged. I am in need of repairs," Magellan said.

"Can't you repair yourself?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot beam this cannon at my vessel, so I require the help of some SCVs."

Sony decided to switch to the public channel. "Alright, listen up! We need some SCVs ova' here because Magellan's been crashed by the zerg."

"Who gave you authority over us?" one of the SceeVees asked.

"I certainly did not," the captain said.

"Hey, man, leave the ordering to the captain!" Harold said.

Sony slammed his fist next to his bike's microphone. "Harold, listen here, you dedicated bootlicker of the captain! If Magellan gets destroyed, we're all done for. No more food, no more medical aid, no more science. We'd all be fucked. So you guys can either bring your SCVs here and fix him, or stay there and scrape crystals while the zerg tear him down. It's your call."

* * *

Sony and the others guarded the science vessel from the hydralisks and mutalisks that kept coming. They hoped the zerg would not send any guardians their way. In the distance, there was something wiggling toward them.

"Oh no … Don't tell me they've already brought those here!" Playboy said.

As the creature came closer, he saw the clawless lobster body, the small red eyes, and the deformed jaws full of sharp teeth. It scratched itself with two of its front legs like a flea-ridden dog.

The red ghost sighed. "Yep. It's here. Tell the protoss to glass this planet. Once it's got defilers, it's doomed."

"Ua-ugh!" the defiler said, tilting its head while looking at the terrans.

"Tony! Blast it!" Sony ordered.

"It's too far away," Tony said.

A blinking red dot of light appeared on the face of the defiler.

"Got to make sure it dies," Playboy said while aiming.

Spook face-palmed. "You're wasting a nuke on just one zerg."

The missile landed and flattened the defiler, leaving only its charred remains on the ground.

Harold and three other SCVs arrived and began fixing the science vessel. It took them about three minutes, but Magellan was airborne once more.

"Thank you!" he said.

Another flying zerg appeared. Its two black eyes were on the tips of stalks, its mouth had a pair of tusks, and its legs were connected by a red membrane.

"Zerg queen detected!" Rob said.

The queen scouted the area and saw the repaired vessel. Before flying away, it left a parting gift to the terrans. She spat her spore glob at one of the white-armored SCVs. The spores spread all over the mech and entered into its ventilation system, getting into the pilot's skin.

"Guys, there's something … growing inside me," the infected SceeVee said. Then his SCV ended up being destroyed from the inside by a pair of zerg that looked like a mix between crocodiles and cockroaches. The pilot had been killed by the birthing process of the twin zerg.

Sony stared in disgust at the creatures. "Are those things broodlings?"

Spook shot the pair of zerg and killed them before they could reach Tony. "Yes, they are. Having these pop out of you while you're still conscious has to be one of the worst ways to die."

"I heard the spores can get through the plating of tanks," Tony said. "Things don't look so good for me if they have more of those queens."

"We'll try our best to keep them away," Magellan said.

Playboy rubbed his chin. "Zerg _queens_ you say?"

Sony looked at the zerg base to the south. "I think it's time to move in and attack this expansion. They don't seem to be sending any more backup here. I guess they are focusing on defending their main base."

"Moving!" Tony said, getting his tank out of siege mode.

Even the five mutalisks that guarded the lair gave it up and flew away. The main zerg base would need all the defenses it could gather to survive the attacks of these insistent terrans.

The lair was brought down under cannon blasts and rifle fire with no opposition from the zerg. Sony used the station to say, "The last of the zerg expansions is gone. Now we need as many SCVs as possible to contain their main." He unblocked the captain and said, "Yo, Cap'! How does it feel to be a useless part of your own crew?"

The captain spouted various unintelligible profanities over the station.

The SCVs left the valley and went in line toward Sony's location. Once they got there, they proceeded to build two bunkers at the entrance of the zerg's base.

Sony placed all three of his spider mines ahead of the bunkers to ensure that ultralisks wouldn't be at full health when the marines would have to deal with them. He left the area and went to check on the missile turrets that were being built.

The zerg sent out a dozen zerglings in an attempt to destroy the bunkers that were still under construction. If they had reached the mines first, they would have been instantly eliminated, but the marines rushed to defend. Two of the ones in blue armor ended up standing atop the spider mines while shooting at the zerglings.

Sony returned to the area and saw what was going on. He gasped. "No! Don't stay there, I–"

The zerglings caused all three mines to dig out of the sand. The marines saw the mines and began to back off, but the two blue ones were too late.

Sony looked away, gritting his teeth and covering his eyes with his hands. As the explosions and screams echoed, he asked, "Why did you guys have to go there?"

An ultralisk charged at the remaining thirteen marines, causing them to run away. Sony stood in its path, not paying it any attention. An easy kill, the ultralisk thought.

"Sony! Ultralisk's headin' your way!" Tony shouted over the station, yet the vulture pilot remained unresponsive.

Tony set his tank into siege mode and shot the ultralisk, making it focus on him instead. After two more shots, the ultralisk died between the two completed bunkers.

Sony finally managed to snap our of it and saw the ultralisk's remains.

"Sony, what the hell were you doing, man? Pay attention to your surroundings!" Tony said.

The vulture pilot refused to respond. He put his hands over his head and frowned. _If only I had warned them that I've planted mines there ..._ Looking at the remaining marines on the other side of the bunkers, he could tell he let them down. Some were glaring at him, some were sad, and some still looked terrified from the experience of being so close to being blown to smithereens.

An ultralisk came charging at Sony again, but he started the engine and drove away, passing the rest of the terrans until he was out of sight.

Tony turned his tank's turret around to see the vulture. "Hey, where are ya going, Sony?" He received no answer. Seeing that the ultralisk was very close, he returned the turret to its initial position. Then he realized that he would not be able to land any shots due to the zerg being too close to his tank. "Oh shit! I don't even have time to switch!"

Hat Guy charged his rifle and fired a boosted shot at the ultralisk, but one more shot was required. There wasn't enough time to charge another one.

The giant zerg was very close to the tank, but found itself shot in its unprotected abdomen by Sniper, who slid under it. The beast collapsed dead, but its body continued to travel a few meters forward over the ground due to inertia. The only consequence was that it pushed the tank away a bit.

Tony raised his goggles and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Phew! Thanks, guys! I owe each of you a beer or whatever is your poison tonight."

* * *

Meanwhile, Playboy was keeping a queen busy. They sat atop a mountain near one of the bunkers and had a bottle between them. He held his glass of red wine normally while the queen held hers with her long tongue.

"Uraaaaugh! Oooo!" the queen said.

"Oh, indeed. The sunset looks beautiful. Almost like a mushroom cloud left over from a nuke."

"Urrrrrah woooourgh, yaaaaaaaguu uuuuigh?"

"That's what I've always wondered too," Playboy said. Then he saw the queen's head get shot off by Sniper from below. "Aw, come on, man! Just when the conversation was getting interesting!"

Sniper shook his fist at the red ghost. "Get down from there and nuke something, you manwhore!"

A blue marine came up to Sniper and pointed at him. "Why ain't _you_ nukin' anythin'?"

The green ghost turned around and aimed for the marine's head. The blast went through the guy's skull and reached the head of another blue marine behind him. "Because I focus on _sniping_."

The marine in white armor with Playboy's signature saw the scene and said, "Nice headshot, Timmy!"

Another marine in blue added, "Yeah, _double_ headshot!"

Taking in what he had just done, Sniper froze as a wave of memories came crashing down on his mind. He remembered how his mother wrapped her hands around his neck, and how her thoughts were about how his father would regret not giving her money for booze when he'd see his precious Timmy all purple in the face. Then with glee Sniper saw how Timmy grabbed the scissors off his computer desk and went for his so-called mother's neck. Her death at his hands landed him in the juvenile detention center, where he was punished for daring to defend himself. Then he remembered his teenage years ... The girls at high school always played pranks on him, and one guy terrorized him during lunch breaks. Oh, how sweet the revenge was when he spiked their water bottles and dragged all four teens to the basement of an abandoned house as soon as they fell asleep. He tied them to chairs, gagged them, waited for them to wake up, and then had his way with all four of them. He considered ending them with a chainsaw, but then decided to just bury them alive. He had other plans for the chainsaw. Plans that left Tarsonis without 23 of its citizens and landed him not in jail, but in the Ghost Academy after a wrangler of theirs figured him for a teep – a telepath.

"You okay, dude?"

Sniper ignored that question. He felt that he was at risk of slipping into that dark, stormy, murderous state of mind that he had been shown the consequences of at the academy. And yet, why wouldn't he just revert back to who he really was? He remembered how he asked – no, _begged_ – to be resocialized, to be allowed to serve the country in order to atone for his crimes. He requested that they lock away – if not destroy – the information about his past and ensure that he never gets access to it nor hears anything about its existence after they'd remove those memories from his brain. What was he thinking? He should have known there was no guarantee that he'd get away from his past, and that there would always be some people he'd want dead for one reason or another. He should have just embraced his bloodlust to rake in more kills as a ghost. After all, the Confederacy never cared what the price for victory was, so why did he even bother to care about anyone trapped in the middle? He should have just killed anyone in his way. It would have spared him the complications during missions.

The marine in white waved his hand in front of the ghost. "Uh ... Timmy?"

Sniper's mind returned to the present time. "I'm tired of this crap. Let's just hijack the captain's Frigate and actually pillage like _real_ pirates, not like the pansies Betelgeuse wants us to be! Anyone who doesn't want to become zerg food can come with me."

"Good idea!" the white marine said.

The blue marine smirked. "Yeah! I've had enough of this place!"

Tony glared at his tank's speaker after hearing what Sniper and the marines had said over the station.

Hat Guy sat atop a mountain and had Sniper's head in the view of his scope. He was about to pull the trigger. That was when five zerglings surrounded Sniper and the two marines.

"Perfect time you've picked to be deserters!" Tony announced publicly as he aimed the cannon at the zerglings and pushed the big red button with no sign of hesitation. The tank fired. Its monitor confirmed that the resulting blast had eliminated not only the zerglings but also Sniper and the two marines. "When I said I will dispense indiscriminate justice, I really _meant_ the _indiscriminate_ part!"

Hat Guy stared at Tony's tank, his goggles glowing brightly before losing intensity. "Fair enough. I'll let you live."

* * *

The SCVs managed to surround the zerg's base with missile turrets, making it nearly impossible for the zerg to leave by flying over the mountains.

Betelgeuse decided to come and check on the containment and was amazed how such a small army managed to keep the zerg at bay. He also noticed the remains of Sniper's equipment among the marine armor pieces. If it hadn't been for Tony, that crazy ghost would have murdered him.

"You ready to resign now, Captain?" Brian asked.

"Resign? I brought you all together! If it weren't for me, you all would have died. But I must admit, you guys did decent job containing the zerg. They are weakened from battle. I think we should just get rid of them now and end this. They're cornered already."

Hat Guy appeared out of nowhere. "Captain, we're all exhausted. You said we would wait until tomorrow–"

"I changed my mind. Crush them while they're down!"

"I will play along, but you have learned nothing," the ghost said in a sinister tone.

* * *

Hat Guy managed to sneak into the zerg hive cluster by leaving his hat at the entrance. Holding a plate of omelet with lots of chili peppers and black pepper scattered all over the yellow mess, he proceeded to pour some of it into a spore colony's opening. The zerg structure began to shrivel until there was nothing but a puddle of blood left.

"Man, Hat Guy sure loves to torture these bastards," Brian said to the other marines inside a bunker while firing at the incoming mutalisks.

In the other bunker, Brandon and three other marines burned and shot the zerglings that tried to escape the containment.

The overlords tried to find Hat Guy, but they were too late. All spore colonies had been destroyed.

Playboy cloaked himself and set all the overlords on fire with the power of his mind. "Now we won't have to worry about those."

Hat Guy retrieved his hat, filled some bullets with salt, and shot at the hive. A zergling saw the hat and charged toward it. Then it halted and wondered why it could no longer run.

"Hey there, you mad hatter!" Playboy said while snapping the neck of the zergling. "Need a hand? Or better yet ... a nuke?"

"Would be useful right now," Hat Guy said. "Please proceed."

The red ghost released the zergling's corpse and activated his rifle's laser. "I'll gladly paint the target!"

Behind him, a defiler dug its way out. It noticed the shimmers of the two ghosts and the blinking red dot on the hive, so it approached slowly. It gargled and then barfed out red spores that went straight for Playboy.

"Aw, shit! Now _I'm_ the one who's painted!" the red ghost said, noticing the spores all over his transparent armor. "Ouch! It's starting to sting!"

"Just keep targeting," Hat Guy said. "The nuke will land soon."

Playboy gritted his teeth and endured the pain, trying his best to not move the dot off the hive. He felt like the ground was spinning with him, and that his muscles felt like they were on fire. Wanting to get revenge on the defiler, he used his pyrokinesis and burned the creature to a crisp.

The missile landed on top of the hive, exploding and damaging half of the structure. Hat Guy continued to shoot at it while Playboy collapsed.

A larva next to the hive became an egg. Hat Guy could sense it was going to be a strong zerg once it would hatch. Possibly an ultralisk. He could just remove his hat and continue shooting the hive until it would be destroyed – after all, he had the ability to stay cloaked for as long as he wanted. But then he looked at the red ghost who lay on the creep, barely conscious.

"Ow, my head, my arms, my … _everything_! It burns!" Playboy said while rolling on the ground and curling into fetal position.

There wouldn't be enough time to save him. Either Hat Guy would destroy the hive and lose his teammate to whatever came out of that egg, or he'd save his teammate but allow the hive to heal itself.

Playboy reached out toward Hat Guy. "Hey ... is that … an angel?"

Hat Guy grumbled something while lowering his head.

* * *

The rest of the terran forces retreated to their valley while leaving eight of their marines and three SCVs at the containment site. Sony followed them, but remained silent for the entire trip. The captain made sure to rub in Sony's failure, so the biker decided to block the transmission again.

Once they arrived at the bar, Tony said, "Wait. Where are Hat Guy and Playboy?" He looked around, only to see people shrugging at him. "Don't tell me they bit the dust! That's the last thing we need!"

"No, we're not living up to our profession's name yet," Hat Guy said as he entered the bar while carrying a still unconscious Playboy on his back. Then he put the red ghost on the ghost table.

Tony checked Playboy's pulse by grabbing the guy's wrist. "What happened to him?"

"He got plagued," Hat Guy said. "Then we got attacked by this unusual zergling that hatched just before I could bring the hive down. That creature managed to destroy our equipment with a psionic attack, so I guess we disappeared off your map. I believe the purple gas those drones stole from us may be involved in the creation of this zerg abomination."

Playboy regained consciousness. "Oh, man, psionic zerglings! You should have destroyed that hive, Hat! Why did you bother to save me? Now they'll make more of those things!"

"They will need more gas in order to do that."

"They'll get reinforcements though. You should have just left me there! It's clear we're never getting off this planet again. The captain wants to keep us here forever and I'll … I'll never find a partner."

Hat Guy stared at the electronic clock on the bar's wall. It displayed 4:44 PM with red lights. "Just hold on for three more days. Then you will all be free to explore space and find more terrans."

* * *

In the evening, while the darkness had completely enveloped the half of the planet inhabited by terrans and zerg, Sony parked his vulture next to the chasm to the east of his base. The abyss seemed to be calling to him, so he walked up to it and stared down. He sat on its edge and began to imagine how the fall could go.

Spook uncloaked behind him. "A gun would be a quicker and less painful option, you know."

"Fuck off!" Sony said.

"And to think you used to dream of becoming a hero," Spook said.

Sony looked away, trying to hide the tears that he was barely holding back.

"Such a weakling, running from your mistakes. It's no wonder you washed out after second year." With that, Spook left and became invisible again.

The vulture pilot got up, stared one last time at the deepness of the chasm, and then turned around. He went to his bike, started the engine, and drove toward the base.

Spook uncloaked while peeking from behind a rock as the vulture kept going. Beneath his mask, he smiled.

* * *

 **To be continued.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: To the Sky!**

The valley was quiet, lit by the blue moon as Spook stood next to the nuclear silo and looked around. The other terrans were surely sleeping in their respective buildings. They would never guess what was coming their way.

Spook aimed his rifle's laser in the area between the main command center, the factory, and the two barracks. _Strange, why do I remember the other barracks group being destroyed?_ He used his mind to activate the targeting system. _It's for the best that you all go peacefully._

"Nuclear launch detected!" the adjutant announced automatically.

Spook's arms began to shake as the warhead lifted off from the nuclear silo with a loud roar. Yet no one seemed to be aware of the unauthorized launch. There was nobody running out of the buildings or screaming.

The missile stopped ascending and then turned around to fall toward the blinking red dot. At that moment three SceeVees came out of the command center to check out what was going on. When they saw the warhead blazing its way toward them, they rushed back inside their building, hoping that it would hold under the explosion.

The nuke landed on the ground, sending massive waves of destruction that hit the barracks, the command center, and the factory. Once the mushroom cloud cleared up, there was fire everywhere, even on the buildings that lost a few pieces of plating.

"Nuclear launch detected!"

Another warhead was launched, this time from the nuclear silo outside the valley.

The marines tripped over each other in a hurry to get out of the barracks. Tony left the factory, only to be welcomed by the hell the nuke had left behind, and by the sight of a second missile ready to finish everyone off. He put his hands on his chest and screamed as he collapsed to the ground.

"Tony!" Sony yelled as he rushed down the factory's ramp to get to his friend. He shook the tank pilot and noticed that the guy wasn't breathing anymore. He pressed his right ear to Tony's chest to listen. Then he punched the ground while screaming.

Playboy ran around with fire trails coming out of his suit. "It's getting too hot! Ow, ow, ow! Ahahaaaagh!"

"Who the fuck did this?" Brian asked, shaking the embers off his armor.

"Who else other than that fuckin' traitor ova' there?" Sony said while pointing at Spook.

The blue ghost maintained position while whispering, "It will be over soon. All the pain will end ... for everyone."

Playboy failed to extinguish himself. He dropped to the ground and stopped moving as the flames devoured his body.

The second warhead landed, and the explosion cleansed the area. The valley fell silent again.

Spook sobbed while looking at his rifle. It was going to be his means of ending his own suffering, but someone decided to change the way his death was going to be. His torso got painfully speared by something that burst out from below his ribs and turned into a green hand of flames.

A familiar voice echoed in his mind. _"Well, you did it. You've killed them all."_

He looked behind and saw Hat Guy, whose goggles glowed brighter than usual while holding his right arm in Spook's back.

"Tell me, Vincent ... was it worth it?"

Spook looked back at the burning valley. There was no sign of life. Even the Frigate was half demolished, its captain nowhere to be seen.

Hat Guy retracted his flaming arm out of Spook's gut and said, "I'm sure the zerg will thank you."

Spook fell to the ground, curled up in pain. He saw Hat Guy sigh, walk away, and then turn invisible. Looking around, Spook saw a swarm of zerglings that was heading his way.

One of the beasts grabbed him by the right arm's wrist and started to drag him over the sand. More of them approached and chewed his limbs as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Before he knew it, he was buried under the swarm.

* * *

He woke up screaming, only to realize that Hat Guy's hand was holding him by the right wrist.

"Wake up, my ghost brother!" Hat Guy said. "Today we strike the zerg for the last time."

Spook was glad that nobody could see his face. He still had tears left over from the dream's impact on his mind. As he regained composure, a strange event caught his attention. The marines were all gathered in a corner of the room, so he went to check out what was going on. What he saw made him lose even more hope that their crew was going to survive the day.

A saying went that nobody ever dies in bed in the Koprulu Sector, but on that morning Brandon proved that wasn't always true.

"Rest in peace, you lucky bastard!" Brian said as he put the body's cold hands on its chest. "You were one of our best fighters. We thank you for your service."

Everyone in the barracks saluted the deceased by putting their hands to the temple.

* * *

As the marines used some shovels to dig a grave for Brandon, Spook went to the science facility and used his station. "Magellan, could you do me a favor, please?"

Magellan received his message. "I am listening."

"Scan Tony and see if he has any health problems."

"But why–"

"Do it!"

"Okay. Here goes!" Magellan scanned Tony and noticed something wrong in the tank driver's chest, which had an important part displayed in red. "Oh, my! That heart definitely is in need of repairs."

"Then fix it!" Spook said.

"I'm afraid nothing short of surgery can fix the aortic stenosis. My nanobots can only heal open wounds."

"Then tell him about the surgery and convince him to go through it before we lose him too!"

"I'll have to learn how to perform heart surgery, but there is no time for that while the war is happening. I will discuss matters with him right now, but he'll have to hold on until we're out of this zerg mess." With that, Magellan flew over to Tony.

* * *

Hat Guy threw a shard of mineral away, and Smiley went after it. The robot returned and gave the shard back, the ghost took it and threw it away, and the game started all over again.

"I see you've trained your probe," Playboy said.

"It does this by default, no training needed," Hat Guy said, receiving the shard again. "Probes are programmed to go for the easiest shards first, and this tiny piece is easy to acquire."

"Shouldn't it send it to a nexus?"

"Do you see a nexus around here?"

Playboy looked around. "No."

"That's why it gives the shard to me."

"Does that make you a nexus?"

"No. It makes me this probe's master."

Playboy shrugged. "If you say so."

* * *

Sony hadn't eaten anything that morning. He went straight to the machine shop and grabbed a spider mine. Staring at it made him feel guilt for the incident from the day before, but without those dangerous contraptions the zerg ground forces would be harder to annihilate. He fitted his vulture with three of those mines and used the vehicle's touch screen to see if the vulture's systems were functional. No problems were reported by the computer.

The captain passed him by and didn't say a word, but gave him a glare before looking away. Sony returned the glare and then looked around. Seeing Tony and Magellan nearby, he decided to go talk to them.

Tony seemed worried about something, but changed his expression to a smile when he saw the vulture pilot. "What's up, Sony?"

"Getting ready for war, as usual. What are you guys up to?"

Tony scratched behind his head. "Uh, well, Magellan said he wants to test his latest creation on our vehicles." He omitted mentioning the prior discussion, not wanting to give Sony more worries.

"That's right!" Magellan said. "The shield generator is ready to be tested."

"A shield generator, eh?" Sony said. "Where do I sign up?"

* * *

Half an hour later, Magellan finished fitting Tony's tank and Sony's vulture with the new devices. "Get in so you can see how it works. It can't do anything if you're not near it."

The drivers went inside their vehicles and noticed a new display next to their main ones. Tony's said his tank had gained 20 shields, while Sony's said his vulture had gained 49 shields.

"So, how do these things work, Magellan?" Sony asked.

"These generators react to your psionic emanations and increase your defenses. Tony's shields are pretty normal for your average human, but yours … You're pretty close to–"

"Close but not close enough!" Sony said while smashing his fists onto the dashboard. "Don't you fuckin' remind me of … of what I'm not good enough to be!"

Tony interrupted the discussion. "Sony, are you okay, buddy?" Sony remained silent, so Tony got out of his tank and went to check on his friend. "Spook told me you were feeling really down last night. The kind of down that is dangerously close to doing something … reckless."

"That fuckin' ghost ..." Sony said under his breath.

Tony scowled at him. "Why did I have to hear it from 'that fuckin' ghost' instead of hearing it directly from you?"

"I …"

"Was it so difficult to vent to me instead of almost ending your life?"

"Spook was right, damn it! He was right that I am a loser! Not was. _Am_."

"Oh, come on now! Don't be so hard on yourself," Tony said while putting his left hand on Sony's right shoulder.

"I was born on Mar Sara," Sony began. "The Confederacy didn't care much about checking children from fringe colonies for psionic powers. I discovered my telepathy when I was 5 years old. My parents were too busy boozin' it up, so they never figured out what was going on."

"I kinda got that teep vibe from you when you seemed to read my mind."

"It was shitty enough being feared by the kids in kindergarten for hearing their thoughts, but the seven school years were worse. Everyone intentionally thought the most disgusting or rude things they could think about me, just to see my reaction. My teachers kept quiet about my telepathy so the Confederacy would not come after me. Yet I screwed myself over anyway, because one day I saw two ghost agents ... They looked super strong and had a lot of cool gizmos on them. They were escorting some toddlers and teenagers into a van. I wanted to be just like those ghosts. I thought I could get back at my classmates once I became a ghost. Stupid younger me ran up to those ghosts and begged them to take me with them."

"So _that's_ what Spook meant by you joining the academy willingly."

"I was barely accepted into the Ghost Academy. With a psi index of 4.9, I was borderline ghost material. I passed the vulture driving test, but I washed out at the end of second year after failing the final thought projection test. Not knowing what to do with me, they threw me in the army as a vulture pilot."

"Why did you go back to Mar Sara?"

"I was still hoping to become a hero and have the bullies look up to me. Then I found out that the zerg had killed everyone I knew there. Even while I'm part of this crew, I'm still failing everyone. So, yeah, I might as well tattoo the word _LOSER_ on my forehead."

Magellan flew his science vessel away. "I'll go upgrade the rest of our vehicles. I hope you guys put this technology to good use."

* * *

The captain was overseeing Magellan's work when he received a message from one of his marines.

"Captain? There's something odd going on here."

"Report what you're seeing, soldier!"

"That one zergling that put a number on our strongest ghosts started to eat its own kind," the marine said.

"We all know the zerg are savages, so why is that so strange?"

"Well, instead of popping due to eating so much, it grew to the size of an ultralisk. And now it seems like it's working on growing a pair of wings."

"Keep an eye on it, and shoot it if it gets near your bunkers!"

"I think it would be better if you'd allow us to go there right now," Hat Guy said. "We're already kind of late."

"I'm not sending my army there until we're all finished with preparations. Magellan's still working on the shield upgrade for our goliath."

"Captain, a few powered up shots and a nuke would easily get rid of the zergling before it reaches maturity."

"Nobody is leaving until I say so, Hat Guy!" the captain said.

"The marines will enjoy cleaning the floor of your pieces for that decision," Hat Guy said. "Just thought you should know, since you won't be around to witness that. Too bad that neither will I."

The captain stared wide-eyed as the ghost in black walked away. "Excuse me?!"

* * *

"Attention, everyone!" Hat Guy said over the station. "The psionic zergling will head this way. It is far too late to catch it while it is still in the hive cluster. All of you go attack the hive cluster while I stay here and guard the base from the abomination."

Sony approached him. "Alright, Hat Guy, I've read everyone's mind about you, and it seems you've been pulling some strings around here, making the captain rescue random people to form an army. What's your angle?"

Hat Guy tilted his hat to the right with his left hand. "My angle, if you all get along, is a tidy 90 degrees. Do anything to compromise my plans and it will be a nasty 180 degrees."

Sony squinted at the strange ghost. "The fuck does that mean?"

Hat Guy turned invisible and left, his hat giving away his position as usual.

"Do we take his advice, Sony?" Tony asked.

Sony rubbed his ginger beard. "We're gonna get rid of that hive anyway, so …"

"Then give the order. We're all ready."

"Guys, I'll leave the nuking to Spook," Playboy said over the station. "I'll stay in base and help Hat out."

"Are you sure you want to stay behind?" Hat Guy asked him. "This thing isn't your ordinary zerg, and you have higher chances of surviving in the final assault than guarding here."

"I've made up my mind, Hat. You saved me, so I'll at least try to help you out."

"Then it's settled. Tavi and I will guard the base while the rest of you assault the hive cluster."

The marine from the bunker contacted the captain again. "Sir? The psionic zergzilla is about to start some major trouble here."

"I've heard enough," the captain said. "Destroy that thing before it escapes!"

"I don't think you understand the graveness of the situation, sir. The thing has grown wings and is preparing to leap over our bunkers. It doesn't seem like our turrets or our rifles can … Shit. Prepare to intercept it, Captain! It's heading your way!"

"What do you mean it's heading my way?!"

"Tavi, are you ready?" Hat Guy asked while looking at the red ghost.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"The zergling will jump over the photon cannons and try to attack our secondary command center to get to the Breath of Creation. The beast must be stopped before it steals the gas. We might have to snipe and also use stronger psionic attacks. I hope you will be able to handle it."

"I'll do my best."

* * *

Magellan kept Smiley inside the vessel and dropped the rest of the army out of the valley. Accompanied by him, they avoided crossing paths with the giant zergling and reached the bunkers at the entrance of the contained zerg valley.

"Captain, we need a scan on the hive cluster before we go in!" Tony said. He received no reply. "Scan please! Captain?" Nothing.

"I think he has abandoned us," Spook said.

Sony drove his vulture forward. "Then it's up to me again to scout ahead."

The captain's voice was finally heard. "I-I'll scan!"

"Heheh! He's having a nervous breakdown!" Brian said.

The scan revealed the four ultralisks and three guardians next to the hive. Closer to the bunkers, a dozen hydralisks and five zerglings waited for Sony to approach them.

"These hydras look different," Sony said. "They don't have those flaps anymore, but they have spikes jutting out of the top of their heads."

Magellan performed some scans on the zerg. "It appears they have adapted to land again, and their new bodies minimize pain from salt on open wounds. I think this is a response to Hat Guy's prior attacks on them. The zerglings are still allergic to lemon juice though."

"Alright, guys, here's the plan: I drag those hydras and zerglings toward the bunkers and you shoot while I harass them with grenades. If any ultralisks come this way, I will plant the mines. Spook, you will–"

"A defiler just used its plague on our northern turrets," the captain said. "Agent 40! Nuke that area before they bring their mutalisks over!"

"Wouldn't it be better to just send some SCVs there?" Spook asked.

"You need the SCVs at the bunkers and to fix Magellan whenever he gets hit."

"You kept a bunch of other SCVs with you, and they're hiding like the cowards they are inside the command centers," Sony told the captain.

"They are needed to fix the buildings here!"

Hat Guy face-palmed audibly over the station. "I thought we had a deal that everyone who won't fight the zergling should head for the hive cluster. Urgh ..."

"The captain told us to stay," Leroy said.

Hat Guy decided to be brutally honest. "The captain is … really just a scarecrow at this point."

Betelgeuse retaliated with, "I heard that!"

"Ya hear this too? You're brain-panned!" Sony said.

"Why, I oughta–"

A loud roar announced the arrival of the giant zergling at the terran valley. The captain reacted by hiding under his computer desk.

* * *

"You have definitely put on some weight since we last saw you, zergling!" Hat Guy said while staring at the giant zerg at the entrance of the base.

The creature was as tall as two ultralisks put together, and just as long. It had dark purple skin, neon violet eyes, and intermittent lines of a similar color to its eyes traveling through two transparent parallel veins that went from its snout to its tail over its back. Its arms were decorated with violet neon tiger stripes. Spikes were jutting out of its back and out of its top lips on the sides. It had six limbs, just like the normal zerglings on the planet had – four legs for walking and two arms with scythes for attacking.

"Tavi, prepare to snipe it!" the black ghost ordered. "I'm charging up a shot as well."

"You got it!" Playboy said. He used his mind to power up the shot and aimed for the head of the zergling.

The two ghosts delivered the shots at the same time, but barely caused any damage to the head of the beast.

"Oh, this is a strong one!" Hat Guy said.

The zergling shook its rear side and then pounced onto the photon cannons, destroying them under its weight.

"Now _there's_ something you don't see everyday!" Playboy said.

Once the beast was in the base, the two ghosts found themselves no match for the giant zerg's speed. It didn't give them enough time to charge up any attacks, forcing them to focus more on dodging to avoid getting pierced by the creature's scythes.

Hat Guy hid behind the nuclear silo and stuck his back to the building. "We will have to play hide and seek with this one."

"Alright!" Playboy said while cloaking.

The zergling's eyes started to glow brighter as it swiftly lowered its head and unleashed a pulse of violet light out of its forehead. When the light hit the red ghost, it caused him to instantly uncloak.

"I meant we actually have to hide behind things," Hat Guy said.

"Oh," was all Playboy could say before he got hit by the zergling's tail. He was sent flying straight into a missile turret.

Hat Guy ran toward the zergling and used his right fist to punch it in the tip of its snout. The creature found itself with a vertically split head, bleeding neon violet body liquids.

The black ghost maintained his battle stance. "This isn't good."

Playboy got back on his feet. "What do you mean it isn't good? Its head is thoroughly fucked! It's like one of those anatomy models in biology class!"

"If I had done that to an ultralisk, the ultralisk would have been instantly annihilated. But this thing …"

The zergling's head started to pull itself together. In mere seconds, it was good as new.

"It won't go down easily if it survived such a strong, psionically-enhanced punch from me."

* * *

The captain remained under his desk, curled up, hoping that the ghosts would get rid of the monster outside. The roars and screams only made him more terrified.

To make matters worse, Agent 40 contacted him over the station. "Captain, I need backup right away! The zerg have managed to sneak zerglings over the mountains, and they are chasing me!"

Betelgeuse felt the sweat run down his face. The last thing he needed was noise coming from his room while that creature was near his ship.

"I repeat! I need backup!" Agent 40 shouted over the station. "Oh, damn it! I've been hit! My leg's been bit! Send evac! Send backup!"

The captain looked up. He wanted to reply, but his fear kept him in the form of a shaking wreck.

"Send a coroner!" Agent 40 said.

The captain hid his face with his arms and continued to stay where he was while the giant zerg screeched outside.

Sony decided to answer the ghost's cry for help. "I gotcha, Spook. I'm headin' your way."

* * *

The vulture pilot went around the mountain chain and found ten zerglings that were trying to climb a ten meter rock. At its top, Spook tried his best to hold on to one of its peaks while his left leg bled.

"Hey, zerg scum!" Sony said, grabbing the zerglings' attention. "Wanna come to my roadkill restaurant? Don't worry about payin'. For you it's free, 'cause you'll be the _main course_!"

The zerglings let out their chirping battle cry as they charged at Sony, who waited for them with his vulture turned to the side. When they reached his spot, they had the unpleasant surprise of landing atop a spider mine when Sony drove away. The explosion turned the zerg into a bloody pile of body parts.

"Thanks, kid!" Spook said as he made his way down the rock.

"Don't mention it," Sony told him, waiting at the foot of the formation to get the ghost into his vehicle. It only had one seat, so Spook had to sit uncomfortably behind the chair, in the small gap it made with the back of the bike.

Once the ghost was fairly secured, Sony drove toward Magellan, whose vessel sat atop one of the two bunkers. The android used the healing ray on Spook as soon as they were within his range.

"Thanks, Magellan! That leg was killing me."

"You're welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some guardians to irradiate."

* * *

The captain mustered his courage and got out from underneath his desk. But instead of attempting to retake control over his men, he decided to head for the steering wheel.

The Frigate's engines were started, and its propulsion jets began to spew blue flames. Just before the ship could lift off, a green light surrounded it and chained it to the ground.

"You're not going anywhere," Hat Guy said, his goggles glowing brightly as he stared at the ship.

The giant zergling took advantage of the distraction and prepared to swing its scythe at the black ghost.

"Hat! Move!" Playboy said, pushing his teammate out of the scythe's way and falling atop the ghost's back. Once he realized how awkward their situation was, he quickly released Hat Guy from underneath himself. "Yikes! Sorry! Sorry! I didn't mean to land that way!"

"Watch out!" Hat Guy said, but it was too late. Playboy was swatted away by the zergling's scythe, although the hit didn't deal much damage to him.

"Ow! That's gonna hurt in the morning," the red ghost said as he lay on the ground.

The zergling turned around and stared at him. Getting rid of the nuisance first could allow it to focus on the hat-wearing menace unhindered, so it decided to eliminate the helper since he was still stunned.

As the scythe was about to come down on Playboy, Hat Guy put himself between them and took the attack, getting pierced through his chest as he looked into the red ghost's goggles.

"No! Hat! Damn it! At least let it skewer me as well so I can die too! If there's any way I'd rather die, this would be it."

Hat Guy kept the scythe away from his teammate by using his arms to support his upper body above the red ghost. "I wouldn't mind dying like this, but ... our friends need us, Tavi. They can't destroy this abomination, but we can!"

Hat Guy pushed the scythe away, and Playboy burned the zergling's right eye using pyrokinesis, allowing Hat Guy to free himself from the zerg's scythe.

Playboy got up and stared at Hat Guy, whose hole in the chest started to close. "You can heal yourself?! Holy shit! Are you part zerg?"

Hat Guy adjusted his hat. "The zerg have an impressive healing factor, but it's no match for mine."

The zergling regenerated its eye and was ready for a new round of fighting.

"I've got an idea," Hat Guy said while dodging the scythe attacks. "It wants to destroy the secondary command center to get to the gas. We need some time to charge attacks that could do any real damage to the zergling, so what we're going to do sounds crazy, but bear with me. We must hide in the command center and channel as much of our psionic energy as we can, and then we will unleash our attacks together when the center starts falling apart. The zergling won't have enough time to regenerate if we attack fast enough."

"I don't care if it sounds crazy, I'm up for any plan right now," Playboy said while avoiding the spikes that the zergling kept launching at him from its back.

* * *

The captain was once again quivering under his desk when he heard Hat Guy's voice in his mind.

 _"Listen up, Captain! You will take your ship, and you will go make sure your men are kept safe from the wave of zerg queens. You will not dare to take this ship past the planet's atmosphere, or I swear you will find yourself crushed by those same walls you think keep you safe."_

"Y-yes, sir!" the captain said. He never thought he'd address himself that way to one of his own soldiers.

* * *

"Nuclear launch detected!"

Spook was cloaked, targeting the three greater spires that looked like colossal flower-shaped jellyfish made of red meat. Fortunately for him, the only three overlords he hadn't sniped huddled in the back of the zerg valley, guarded by a dozen hydralisks while struggling to maintain control over the brood.

Next to the hive there were three eggs holding new zerg that underwent transformations. Spook was sure that at least one of them was going to be a new overlord that would be sent his way to detect him.

The nuclear warhead was faster, landing over the spires. It left the three structures bleeding, and wiped out all the mutalisks in the area.

"It's your turn, Tony!" Spook said over the station.

"Moving in!" Tony said. As he took his tank out of siege mode, he scrolled through his playlist on the screen in front of him.

Spook waited next to the spires until the tank arrived, its speakers blaring "Flight of the Valkyries" at maximum volume. The music continued to play as the vehicle converted into siege mode and blasted the spires to kingdom come.

"Nice work, Tony!" Sony said as he drove by. "Watch out though, they got two mutas and one overlord next to the hive."

Magellan brought his vessel above the tank. "They're no match for science!" His cannon irradiated the two mutalisks, but they plunged themselves onto the ghost and vulture pilot.

"They went kamikaze on us!" Sony said while trying to shake off the acid that had left holes in his black leather jacket.

Spook uncloaked, losing his balance as the mutalisk leftovers passed the yellow radiation cloud onto him. "I think I'm gonna puke!"

Magellan used his healing beam on them. "There. Feeling better?"

Before they could answer, they saw a dozen zerg queens fly toward the mountains. There was nothing stopping them from leaving the hive cluster.

"Oh, shit! The defiler took our turrets out!" Sony said. "Captain! Send those SCVs here already! The ones we got here are busy fixing the bunkers!" He received no answer.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the terran base, the giant zergling kept scratching the command center, causing parts of the building to catch fire while the two ghosts and seven SCVs hid inside.

"Keep focusing your power into your forehead, Tavi," Hat Guy said.

"I'm trying, but my body's going all numb."

"That's because you're not used to managing this much power. I would have trained you earlier if the captain had not given that zerg abomination a head start. Now all I can do is hope that you won't knock yourself out cold before you can unleash the attack."

"Well, that's reassuring!" Playboy said.

"Focus! We're running out of time!"

The red ghost started to lose his balance. "I'm trying!"

"Ignore the dizziness!" Hat Guy said. "Ignore the pain! Just synchronize with my mind, and when the time is right, we'll attack as one!"

Playboy's goggles started to glow brighter as he gathered every last bit of psionic energy from his body. He was barely kneeling, his spine struggling to keep him from collapsing.

The scythe tore a quarter of the command center's roof, causing burning debris to fall around the two ghosts.

 _"Now, Tavi!"_

At that moment the two ghosts unleashed powerful blasts of psionic energy from their heads and turned the giant zergling into a burnt corpse next to the command center.

Playboy fainted, but Hat Guy lifted him off the ground with his telekinesis and shook him. "Wakey-wakey! We did it!"

The red ghost regained consciousness and looked around as he was put back on his feet. "Huh? What?"

They went outside to check the corpse, but then they saw a zerg queen atop the command center.

"Hey, what's it doing?" Playboy asked as the queen went inside the building and caused some strange red tissue to grow out of it. "Hat, are you seeing this?" When he turned around, he saw Hat Guy and no zergling corpse. The black ghost burped.

"Aw, come on, Hat! Magellan could have studied that thing!"

"I think Magellan is going to have a field day anyway. Look!" Hat Guy said while pointing at the command center.

"Live for the swarm!" the SceeVees shouted as they came out of the building. They had red eyes, spikes jutted out of their backs, and their arms grew longer and thicker. Even weirder, their mouths got united with their noses and turned into elephant trunks that had spikes coming out of them every now and then.

"They're … infested," Playboy said.

Leroy was the last infested terran to reveal himself. "For the swarm?! For the Overmind?! Who's the Overmind? Aaa! I'm goin'! I'm goin'!"

"Not good," Hat Guy said. He grabbed Playboy by the right arm and took him behind the mineral patch to the west. "Our buffoon of a captain let a queen slip by his ship. If he had sent those SceeVees with the others, we wouldn't be hiding from living bombs right now."

The infested SceeVees left the valley, walking as if they were mindless zombies.

Hat Guy used his station to alert everyone. "Attention! A queen has infested one of our command centers. As a result, the SCV pilots hidden inside the building have been assimilated by the zerg. Expect seven highly explosive people to come your way."

"It got to our SceeVees?!" Sony said. "Seven of them?! Captain, I've never wanted to turn you into roadkill more than I do right now!"

* * *

Rob breathed deeply through his gas mask while his goliath sat atop Harold and the other three uninfected SceeVees as if he were a mother hen. "I will protect my remaining SceeVee brethren. I haven't forgotten what I started as."

"You were a SceeVee?!" Harold said.

"I carried tons of minerals and vespene gas for many years, until the day enemy marine shot me in the neck. Luckily, Sons of Korhal gave me electronic voice box."

"I tried to keep the queens away, but these things are difficult to block with my Frigate," the captain said as he kept steering his ship into the swarm of six queens while Rob shot them.

Sony continued to spew his hatred over the station. "You bastard! You coward! You imbecile! Those SceeVees could have been saved if you had asked them to get aboard your ship!"

"Cool yourself, Sony!" Tony said. "What's done is done. We might as well put these poor sods out of their misery before they reach us." He turned the tank's turret and shot at the incoming infested terrans. It pained him to push the button, knowing he was killing innocent, weaponized members of his own crew, but it had to be done.

Leroy stumbled around, confused. A voice urged him to head for the bunkers, but his mind kept telling him he should keep away. He hit his head with his long, clawed arms, and it hurt. "The Overmind commands. I obey? I am strong? What is this bullshit?" A yellow cloud of radiation started to come out of his skin. It burned. He ran around, screaming while attacking the air with his claws and the two scythes from his back. His suffering came to an end ten seconds later, when his body exploded by itself.

"I am sorry, Leroy," Magellan said. "I will miss the days of cooking together."

* * *

Spook cloaked himself, aimed the laser at the hive, and started the nuclear launch. Sony kept an eye out for attackers while he planted the two spider mines near the ghost so that the hydralisks would not interfere with the nuking.

The missile ascended toward the sky and was about to change direction to seek the blinking dot.

"Hey, Sony boy ... wanna know why peace makes me want to nuke everyone?"

"Nah, thanks. I'm fine without knowing that, Spook."

"I'll tell you anyway, because you really need to know this."

A zerg queen and an overlord approached the ghost.

"War is inevitable," Spook said. "Whatever peaceful times a civilization enjoys will end in disaster."

The queen licked its snout while looking down at him.

"And that's when war comes in and is deemed necessary to fix the problems created by the good times."

The queen inhaled, its neck inflating as if the zerg was about to croak like a frog.

Spook turned his head to look at Sony. "Do you understand now why I want to nuke everyone to hell?"

Sony knew that peace could not last forever among the living, but stopping the cycle seemed a too harsh solution to him.

At that moment, the queen spat a glob of spores at the ghost just as the nuke landed over the hive. Spook collapsed, his chest expanding fast.

"No! I won't let you do this to him!" Sony said as he swiftly turned his vulture toward the ghost and pushed the grenade launchers' buttons.

The exploding grenades tore Spook to pieces before the broodlings could finalize their growth.

"Damn it! Damn what you've made me do, you … you … sons of …" Sony tried to control his breathing and looked around. Two zerg drones dug their way out of the creep and moved further away from the bleeding hive. He used his vulture's station to say, "Attention! Spook is dead. We need another ghost to launch the next nuke so we can finally get rid of this hive. Send a ghost here as soon as possible!"

"We're sorry, but we're kind of trapped at the moment," Hat Guy said.

"How the hell did these things get stacked?" Playboy asked.

An ultralisk and some zerglings could also be heard.

Sony raised his left eyebrow. "The fuck is going on there?!"

"Get those things offa my tank!"

Hat Guy said, "We'd gladly do it, Tony, but the Frigate has sandwiched us and the zerg between you and itself."

Sony got out of his vulture. "Fuck this! I've heard enough." He took Spook's rifle off the ground and, remembering what the blue ghost had taught him, he held it properly.

The two zerg drones morphed into two creep colonies behind his vehicle and started a new morphing process in a last attempt to defend while the hydralisks were still too far away from the hive.

Sony knew he had a limited amount of time before he'd be impaled by two sunken colonies and shot by hydralisk spines, so as soon as the adjutant announced that a new nuclear missile was available, he walked behind his vulture and started a video transmission that would be sent to everyone.

The captain was shocked to see the vulture pilot hold a C-10 rifle with its laser activated, and even more shocked to hear the message that a nuclear launch was in progress.

"Alright, listen up, everyone!" Sony began. "The time we've spent together may not have been as great as we wanted it to be, but I appreciate the friendships and collaboration that did spawn out of it. I trust that you will give the captain his just deserts for all the shit he has fucked up. Tony … thanks for savin' my ass on the battlefield so many times. Take care, buddy."

Tony couldn't find his words. He wanted to scream at his friend for choosing to call a nuke down on himself, but at the same time he knew that whatever he would say would not change what was about to happen. Sony had made up his mind.

The warhead got closer and closer to the hive. Sony stared at it with a determined look on his face. Just as it was about to land, he shouted, "This one's for Spook, motherfuckers!"

The mushroom cloud could be seen in all its blazing glory from the entrance of the zerg valley.

* * *

When they got there, the terrans found parts of metal from the vulture, a C-10 rifle without its muzzle, and the frame of Sony's glasses. It was the end of the war, and the terrans were victorious. But it felt like an empty victory, because they were left with only four SCVs, and that meant it would be more difficult for them to acquire resources and get their vehicles and buildings fixed. Leroy's death also meant they would have to go without a waiter for some time until hopefully someone would take over his role.

Playboy and Hat Guy stared at the scorched ground. The red ghost wanted to ask the black ghost something personal, but he decided to wait until morning out of respect for his fallen comrades.

"Well … uh … you all did a nice job," the captain said. "Drinks are on me tonight!"

" _Dirt_ should be on you tonight, man," Brian said as he and the other marines left the area.

* * *

Playboy found himself walking through a lush forest with clear rivers while a strange white light shone through the trees around him. He used to say that he wanted to nuke the crap out of such places, but in reality he wished that his superiors stopped denying him the chance to actually enjoy the peace and quiet of a place untouched by war and civilization.

Out of the light up ahead, a human figure made of green flames emerged. As the being came closer and closer to the red ghost, it started to increase in height while its body started to change its shape.

Playboy sensed that the entity was troubled by something, which may have been the reason why it stopped advancing toward him. He approached the burning being as its green light reflected off his suit. "Hey, don't worry about that," he said. "I like what I see."

The green flame wrapped itself around him, and he felt a pleasant – and strangely not scorching – warmth. Euphoria took over him as his body seemed to become one with the fiery being.

"It won't be long until everyone can leave," a familiar voice said. "Please don't give up hope."

The red ghost found himself in his bed, panting like he had been running in a marathon. The feeling of bliss turned into disappointment. "Oh, it was just one of _those_ dreams ..." For some reason, he decided to look at the top bunk bed next to his, where Hat Guy should be. The mysterious ghost was no longer there. _Probably went outside to take a leak._

Outside, near the barracks' door, there was a trail of green flames that faded away.

* * *

It was two hours before sunrise when Harold went into the cave to investigate some strange sounds. He came across Smiley, who whimpered in typical probe language while wearing Hat Guy's sedge hat. The SceeVee took the hat and went to Tony's room. "Hey, Tony! I think something must have happened to Hat Guy." The robot followed him there.

"He left his hat behind?" Tony asked, rubbing his eyes while still in bed.

"I found it on the probe," Harold said.

Overhearing the discussion, Playboy joined in. "Hat would never leave his hat behind like that without a serious reason. We have to find him."

* * *

The captain could find no trace of the missing ghost by scanning, and most of the marines and SceeVees were busy sculpting and engraving tombstones. Tony, Playboy, Brian, and Smiley formed a search party and began to travel their small continent. It was only the size of a large city, so they would be done within a few hours tops. They left the other continents to Magellan, since he had a better view of the surroundings and could fly fast.

"What could have made Hat leave?" Playboy asked. "He didn't mention having to go anywhere. Maybe someone or something attacked him and …"

"I doubt there's any way of killing that guy," Brian said.

"There is. I've read his mind during our battle with that giant zerg. He actually feared for his life."

"We'll find him, Play," Tony said. "I'm sure he'd not be defeated easily. Also, he had no spaceship, so he couldn't have left the planet."

At that moment, two trails of purple gas came out of the terran valley and headed for the chasm to its east.

Brian squinted. "What the hell is going on over there?"

"I think we better follow those to see what's absorbing them," Tony said.

Chasing the gas led them to the large crack in the ground. They didn't make it to the ledge because a bright green light shining from the abyss made them too scared to advance.

The light turned into a pair of fiery wings – one of which reached all the way to the terran valley while the other reached the former zerg valley. They belonged to a being of green fire. Its head, shaped like a squid, had four bright white eyes, a pair of horns, and a snout that had nine short tentacles hanging from it. Longer, thicker tentacles could be seen coming from the sides of the entity's torso and short tail.

Tony's eyes widened. "What is that?"

Brian swallowed audibly as he and his friends stared at the mysterious alien. "After all the shit I've seen so far, it wouldn't surprise me if that is what became of Hat Guy."

One stream of purple gas went into the root of the creature's right wing while the other stream went into the root of its left wing. The planet's entire supply of the Breath of Creation was absorbed by the living flame. After staring down at the search party for a few seconds, the fiery being flew toward the starry sky and left the planet.

Playboy clenched his right fist to the side. "It was always about the gas, wasn't it, Hat?"

His friends looked at him and then back at the green speck that looked like a star in the sky. Once that speck disappeared, the red ghost stormed away, abandoning the search party.

"We'll just keep searching," Tony said. "Maybe that wasn't Hat Guy."

Their further searches proved fruitless, and Playboy sat in the cave for the rest of the day.

* * *

The next morning, another search party was formed, this time to search for Playboy, who had gone missing just before breakfast was ready. The party's members were Tony, Brian, and Harold.

Three marines gathered in the middle of the terran valley. They no longer had their armors on.

"Man, I'm so glad Magellan managed to free us from our armors!" an old marine said.

"Yeah! Now we can practice easier," another marine with dark complexion told him.

"Alright, boys! I'm gonna 'accidentally' drop this again," a young marine in his early 20s said while holding an oval rock in his right hand. "Show me your reflexes!" He dropped the rock. "Oops!"

At that moment, the other two marines started to scramble while the young one ran away the fastest. He returned and said, "You'll have to move faster, Pops. I don't wanna have to dig another grave tonight."

* * *

The search party passed by all of the gravestones. The one from the center of the terran valley was for Brandon Keg, born August 8th, 2470, died April 6th, 2500. Tony felt a small pain in his heart when seeing that one.

The tank driver wasn't really a close friend to most of the marines, or to the other firebat, or to Shifty Braxton, the vulture pilot – born August 13th, 2476, died April 1st, 2500 – so seeing their gravestones at their places of death didn't affect him much. Flynn Jones, born May 11th, 2475, died April 2nd, 2500. That one reminded him of the beer he will forever owe the guy. The gravestones of the infested SceeVees – among whom was Leroy Porter, born November 2nd, 2474, died April 6th, 2500 – saddened him more than the one for the SceeVee who burst into broodlings. Blasting infested people with his tank was something he hoped he'd never have to do again.

In the valley that was once claimed by the zerg, two gravestones told of the last two men who died during the war. One was for Vincent Blight, born September 24th, 2475, died April 6th, 2500. The other … Tony could not even dare to look at it – at least not before going through the heart surgery. The gravestone belonged to Sony Harris, born December 12th, 2481, died April 6th, 2500.

* * *

Magellan went to search for Playboy by himself, starting with the chain of mountains to the southwest of the terran valley. It didn't take long for him to reach the end of his search.

At the foot of one of those mountains, the red ghost lay sprawled among ten empty glass bottles that once contained wine. His body was not displayed with an orange outline in Magellan's view.

In response to the discovery, Magellan closed his eyes and bowed his head.

On that same day, at exactly 4:44 PM, the captain was fragged.

 **THE END**


End file.
